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MGR.   MATHEOS  IZMIRLIAN, 
ARMENIAN  PATRIARCH  OF  CONSTANTINOPLE. 


FACTS 


ABOUT 


ARMENIA 


SASSOON    AS    REPORTED    BY    A  NATIVE. — MR. 

GLADSTONE'S  SPEECH  AND  DR.  DILLON'S 

ARTICLE  ON   ARMENIA. 


Publication    No.    i,  of   the  Armenian  Patriotic    Alliance. 


NEW  YORK: 

E.  SCOTT  Co.,  PRINTERS  AND  PUBLISHERS, 

146  West  23d  Street. 

1895. 


S^otice. 


THE  United  States  may  well  be  proud  of  the  noble  stand  taken 
by  its  periodical  Press  for  the  Armenian  Cause.  American  journal- 
ism has  powerfully  reacted  on  the  British,  and  the  two  have  succeeded 
in  stirring  such  a  universal  movement  of  opinion  in  behalf  of  outraged 
Armenia  that  may  be  considered  perhaps  the  most"  comforting 
sign  of  this  fin  de  siecle. 

By  his  clear  declaration  in  full  Parliament  as  to  the  "very  special 
kind  "  of  the  Sultan's  independence,  LORD  SALISBURY,  the  Prime 
Minister,  quietly  withdrew  British  support  from  the  Ottoman  throne. 
Abd-ul-Hamid  would  tremble  to  the  marrow  of  his  bones  were  he 
capable  of  comprehending  the  full  meaning  of  that  solemn  declaration. 
The  Press  heartily  applauded  the  noble  lord,  and  continues  its 
campaign  with  encouraged  hope.  The  waves  of  opinion  are  now  in 
greater  fury  roaring  around  the  accursed  Porte.  According  to  all 
indications  the  thunders  shall  never  hush  until  the  thunderbolt  shall 
strike  and  consume  the  disgraceful  mechanism  which  has  too  long 
been  tolerated  to  work  human  misery  and  demoralization.  And 
that  will  be  indeed  a  glorious  achievement  to  the  credit  of  the 
nineteenth  century. 

This  philanthropic  movement  of  opinion  was  effected  by  the 
publication  of  the  facts  Since  the  last  Armenian  massacre,  the 
horrible  character  of  Turkish  misrule  has  been  brought  to  growing 
light  day  after  day,  and  the  world  stands  now  convinced  that  the 
Government  of  the  Sultan  is  not  merely  corrupt  and  weak,  but  that 
all  its  energies  are  used  to  execute  the  fiendish  plan  of  exterminating 
the  Christian  Armenians  at  their  historic  home. 

The  object  of  the  present  pamphlet  is  to  throw  more  light  on 
the  facts,  and  to  give  a  wider  circulation  to  the  most  trustworthy  of 
reports  relative  to  the  massacre  at  Sassoon  and  the  general  condition 
of  Armenia. 

The  report  which  I  have  with  the  greatest  care  taken  from  the 
lips  of  MR.  VART  AN  DILLOYAN,  is  given  first.  MR.  DILLOYAN  is  a  native 
of  the  Dalvorig  village  in  Sassoon.  He  was  fortunate  enough  to 
escape  the  bayonet  of  the  Turkish  soldiery  last  summer,  and  fled  to 
Caucasus,  proceeded  to  England,  and  after  having,  as  an  eye-witness, 
told  in  that  country  the  tale  of  the  horrors,  has  now  come  to  America. 

The  Sassoon  Armenian  dialect,  as  I  studied  it  on  the  lips  of  this 
refugee,  is  difficult  to  understand  for  Armenians.  It  approaches  more 
than  any  other  provincial  dialect  the  old  classic  Armenian  used  for 
the  translation  of  the  Bible  in  the  fifth  century.  There  is  a  good 
deal  of  corruption  in  the  individual  words,  but  the  syntax  is  remark- 
ably well  preserved.  No  such  true  Armenian  is  spoken  in  any  other 

^2087595 


part  of  Armenia.  And  as  the  language,  so  the  Armenian  national 
character  has  been  admirably  well  preserved  in  Sassoon,  while  in 
Turkey  and  Persia  it  has  undergone  the  deplorable  impression  of 
fanatic  and  continuous  tyranny.  The  Armenians  of  Sassoon  are  full 
of  physicial  and  moral  courage,  dignified,  kind,  truthful  and  indust- 
rious. They  have,  withal,  a  high  degree  of  intellectual  capacity. 
Turkey,  unable  to  corrupt  these  Armenian  highlanders,  proceeded  to 
exterminate  them,  and  in  doing  so,  it  aimed  at  the  heart  of  Armenia. 

Next  to  the  report  of  the  Sassoonian,  the  reader  will  find  MR. 
GLADSTONE'S  latest  speech  on  Armenia,  somewhat  condensed.  In 
that  speech  of  the  Grand  Old  Man  the  heart  of  the  whole  Christendom 
is  throbbing  with  holy  indignation. 

The  third  document  is  the  remarkable  and  remarked  article  of 
DR.  DILLON,  the  special  Commissioner  of  the  Daily  Telegraph  to 
Armenia,  who  spent  many  months  on  the  grounds  in  sounding  to  the 
bottom  the  condition  of  things.  He  talked  with  Turkish  soldiers, 
Kurdish  chiefs,  Armenian  prisoners,  and  put  his  finger  on  the  wounds  of 
the  living  victims  of  Ottoman  barbarity.  His  article  on  "The  Condi- 
tion of  Armenia,"  in  the  August  number  of  the  Contemporary  Review 'is 
the  condensed  result  of  so  much  painstaking  and  conscientious  labour, 
and  gives  a  clear,  horrifying  view  of  the  whole  situation.  We  reprint 
it,  nearly  entire,  by  the  kind  permission  of  the  publishers  of  the 
Review,  to  whom  our  Alliance  publicly  expresses  its  sincerest 
gratitude. 

M.  S.  GABRIEL, 
President  of  the  Armenian  Patriotic  Alliance. 

New  York,  October  i,  1895. 


Sassoon. 


AS    REPORTED    BY    A    NATIVE. 

SASSOON  is  a  mountainous  province  in  the  southern  portion  of 
the  Armenian  plateau,  east  of  Lake  Van.  It  is  inhabited  exclusively 
by  Armenians  and  Kurds,  the  former  race  being  in  majority.  •  There 
is,  however,  no  intermingling  of  the  races  ;  the  Armenian  villages 
are  grouped  in  the  centre  of  the  province,  and  the  Kurdish  are 
scattered  all  around. 

The  Armenians  speak  Armenian,  the  Kurds  speak  Kurdish. 
The  Armenians  are  Christians,  the  Kurds  are  Mohammedans,  and 
quite  fanatic  Mohammedans.  They  often  propose  to  their  Armenian 
friends  to  adopt  "the  true  religion,"  with  promise  of  a  certain 
number  of  Armenian  houses  to  be  made  tributary  to  them.  But  the 
Armenians  are  even  more  ardent  believers  in  Christianity  than  the 
Kurds  are  in  Islam,  and  they  would  rather  lose  all,  even  their  lives, 
than  to  deny  "  the  sweet  Christ,"  as  they  invariably  call  him. 

Some  of  the  Sassoon  Kurds  can  talk  Armenian,  but  even  when 
talking  Armenian,  they  are  easily  recognized  by  the  Armenians. 
The  Kurds  have  the  stamp  of  barbarism  on  their  features  and 
expression. 

RELATION    BETWEEN    THE    ARMENIANS    AND    THE    KURDS. 

The  relation  of  the  Kurd  to  the  Armenian  is  that  of  the  parasite 
to  the  plant. 

The  Armenians  support  both  themselves  and  the  Kurds,  and  at  the 
same  time  pay  taxes  to  the  Turkish  Government.  They  suffice  to  do 
all  this  thanks  to  their  wonderful  industry.  They  are  farmers, 
shepherds,  artisans  and  merchants. 

Near  the  village  of  Dalvorig  there  are  iron  mines,  which  the 
Armenians  work  in  a  primitive  fashion,  and  make  ploughs,  hatchets, 
axes,  knives,  swords,  etc.  The  ploughs  made  by  the  Sassoonians  are, 
on  account  of  their  superiority,  in  great  demand  in  Armenia  and 
Kurdistan. 

The  Sassoonians  export  their  produce,  sheep,  raisins,  honey, 
silk,  iron  utensils,  to  Moosh,  Parkin  and  Diarbekir. 

Of  all  these  Armenian  goods  the  Kurds  must  receive  their  share, 
or  besh,  as  they  call  it.  The  chief  or  Agha  of  the  Kurdish  tribe  will 
come  every  spring,  at  the  head  of  his  men,  to  collect  the  tribute  of 
the  Armenian  villages  in  sheep,  mules,  carpets,  rugs,  stockings,  iron 
implements  and  the  rest. 

The  Armenians  would  think  themselves  fortunate  if  they  had  to 


satisfy  only  one  master,  but  there  are  three  Kurdish  tribes  in  Sassoon 
proper — the  Khanuvdulik,  the  Bosuktzik  and  the  Ousvi  House — each 
claiming  its  own  tribute.  There  are  other  tribes  on  the  borders  of 
Sassoon  in  close  neighborhood — the  Pakrantzik,  the  Baduktzik,  the 
Khivantzik  and  the  Belektzik,  besides  many  other  smaller  ashirets — 
which  demand  their  share. 

The  villages  of  the  Dalvorig  district,  stronger  than  most  others, 
pay  tribute  to  only  seven  tribes.  Some  of  the  other  villages  are 
visited  by  as  many  as  ten.  The  village  of  Havgoonk  must  sometimes 
satisfy  12  ashirets.  No  sooner  one  chief  steps  out  than  another 
arrives,  and  thus  one  after  the  other  make  their  collections. 

TAXES  TO  THE  TURKISH  GOVERNMENT. 

The  principal  taxes  which  the  Sassoon  Armenians  pay  to  the 
government,  are  (i),  the  Poll-tax,  $2.00  per  head,  including  the  new- 
born male  baby.  (2),  Tax  on  real  estate.  (3),  Khamtchoori,  namely, 
5  piasters  per  head  of  sheep — one  eighth  of  the  value  of  the  sheep. 
(4),  Tithe  of  agricultural  products. 

THE    CHANGE. 

Despite  such  continuous  spoliation  by  Kurd  and  Turk,  the 
Armenians  managed  to  get  along  tolerably.  But  in  the  course  of 
recent  years  their  condition  was  rendered  intolerably  worse. 

Turk  and  Kurd  became  more  and  more  exacting,  the  Kurd 
being  instructed  by  the  Turk.  The  Kurds  would  be  satisfied  with  the 
traditional  tribute,  but  the  Turkish  authorities  incited  them  to 
demand  more,  to  plunder  and  to  kill. 

The  Kurds,  at  first  unwilling  to  follow  the  Turkish  policy,  told 
the  Armenians,  in  confidence,  what  the  Osmalis  were  urging  them 
to  do.  But  the  preaching  of  the  Turks  did  affect  gradually  the 
Kurdish  mind.  They  began  to  impose  on  the  Armenians  heavier 
tributes,  hard  personal  services,  and  to  demand,  besides  the  besh  in 
kind,  cash  also.  They  attacked  sometimes  the  Armenian  caravans 
and  plundered  the  merchants,  they  sometimes  carried  off  the  Armenian 
flocks.  Friction,  quarrel  between  the  two  races  grew  more  and  more 
frequent,  to  the  hearty  satisfaction  of  the  government. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  Turkish  authorities  treated  more  and 
more  unjustly  the  Sassoonians.  The  tithe  was  raised  from  10  per 
cent,  to  8  per  cent.,  and  from  8  per  cent,  to  6  5  per  cent.,  and  it 
was  to  be  paid  in  cash,  not  in  kind  as  before. 

As  soon  as  the  Sassoonians  entered  Moosh  or  any  other  city  to 
sell  their  goods,  they  would  find  themselves  at  the  mercy  of  the 
Turks.  They  could  not  sell  to  whom  they  chose.  A  Turk  would 
approach  and  agree  to  pay  so  much  per  head  of  sheep  or  so  much  per 
Ib.  of  honey.  The  goods  would  be  transported  to  his  house,  and 


then  he  would  pay  25  piasters  per  head  of  sheep  instead  af  40  piasters, 
and  half  the  sum  due  for  the  honey.  Of  course,  the  Sassoonian 
would  protest  and  dispute,  but  the  dispute  would  end  by  a  good 
whipping  administered  by  the  Turk.  The  authorities,  if  resorted  to 
by  the  Armenian,  would  make  him  regret  his  stupid  hope  of  justice 
to  be  got  from  the  government. 

In  traveling  far  from  their  mountains,  the  Sassoonians  would  be 
attacked  by  Kurdish  bands  or  Turks,  near  the  villages,  and  would  be 
plundered  not  only  of  their  goods  but  also  of  the  mules  on  which 
they  were  loaded. 

The  Sassoonians  would,  hands  empty  and  hearts  full  of  bitter- 
ness, return  home,  cursing  Kurd  and  Turk,  cursing  also  the  cities  as 
big  traps. 

Of  late  years  they  have  abandoned  the  culture  of  tobacco,  the 
raising  of  silk  worms  and  keeping  bees,  because  they  could  not  travel 
in  safety,  and  when  they  were  not  plundered  on  the  plain,  they  were 
plundered  in  the  cities,  where  they  had  to  sell  their  honey  and  silk 
and  tobacco  and  all  at  the  price  arbitrarily  decided  by  the  Turks. 

THE    EVENTS    OF    1893. 

The  Sassonians  thus  impoverished  on  the  one  hand  and  with 
"heavier  charges  imposed  on  the  other,  found  themselves  in  an  impos- 
sible situation.  They  had  pushed  patience  and  concessions  to  the  last 
limit  beyond  which  human  conscience  could  not  go,  as  they  manfully 
felt. 

The  Kurds  came  early  in  the  Spring  of  1893,  with  demands  still 
more  exorbitant  than  ever  before,  the  chiefs  being  escorted  by  an 
unusally  greater  number  of  their  men,  well  armed. 

The  Armenians  of  Dalvorig  undertook  this  time  to  reason  more 
plainly  with  the  Kurds.  'Why  do  you  not,"  asked  they  of  the  Kurds, 
•"  treat  us  as  your  fathers  used  to  do.  You  demand  from  us  every 
year  more;  besides  you  behave  with  us  like  enemies,  you  carry  off  our 
flocks,  you  watch  our  caravans  and  attack  them.  Your  manifest 
intention  is  to  ruin  us.  Now  you  cannot  be  our  friends  and  our 
•enimies  at  the  same  time.  We  can  endure  this  no  longer." 

The  Kurds  did  not  understand  reason,  refused  the  proposition  of 
the  Armenians,  and  the  Armenians  refused  to  pay  them  any  tribute. 

The  Kurds  returned  with  the  intention  of  coming  back  in  greater 
force.  They  held  a  consultation,  and  were  encouraged  by  the 
Turkish  authorities. 

Three  of  the  tribes,  the  Pakrantzik,  the  Khiyantzik  and  the 
Baduktzik  united  their  forces,  7  or  8,000  men  strong,  and  marched  on 
Dalvorig. 

The  Dalvorig  Armenians  had  to  protect  their  villages  and  flocks 
against  the  thieving  parties,  and  to  fight  at  the  same  time,  against 


the  main  army.  120  men  from  Dalvorig  went  to  meet  the  princi- 
pal force  and  stopped  its  march. 

For  four  days  the  two  armies  watched  each  other.  The 
Armenians  were  behind  the  rocks  of  Furfurkar,  scattered.  The 
Kurds  also  had  a  strong  position.  There  were  40  Armenian  women 
helping  their  husbands  and  brothers  by  bringing  them  bread  and 
water  and  by  encouraging  them.  The  Kurds  attempted  several  times 
to  march  on  and  overwhelm  the  Armenians,  but  could  not  endure 
the  Armenian  fire.  In  their  last  attempt,  the  son  of  the  Khiyantzi 
chieftain,  Tmig,  fell  among  others,  dead.  This  altogther  disheartened 
the  Kurds.  They  retreated  for  good. 

The  Armenians  lost  five  men  and  one  woman.  The  loss  on  the 
Kurdish  side  was  considerable,  perhaps  a  hundred  or  more.  The 
Kurds  carried  back  their  dead  or  wounded. 

The  thieving  expeditions  were  more  successful.  From  the 
villages  they  carried  off  thousands  of  sheep. 

As  the  result  of  this  campaign,  the  Kurds  were  once  more 
inspired  with  fear  respecting  Dalvorig.  Unaided  by  the  Turkish 
Army,  they  would  not,  for  some  long  years,  venture  to  attack  again 
the  brave  Dalvorig. 

On  the  other  hand  the  unsuccessful  attack  of  the  8,000,  was  a  new 
revelation  to  the  Porte.  The  Government  saw  that  there  was  some 
respectable  Armenian  force  in  Dalvorig. 

Troops  were  sent  immediately  to  Sassoon,  which  camped  a  week 
in  the  grain  fields,  and  without  undertaking  any  operation,  returned 
to  Moosh. 

Then  came  the  tax-officer  with  a  number  of  gendarms  and  collected 
the  taxes.  The  Armenians  complained  to  him  that  the  Kurds  had  carried 
off  their  flocks.  He  promised  to  have  the  flocks  returned,  if  the  head- 
men of  the  villages  would  go  with  him  to  identify  the  stocks.  They  did 
go, — not  the  headmen,  as  they  could  not  trust  the  Turks,  but  three  other 
villagers — but  the  Kurds  openly  told  the  officer  that  they  had  acted 
according  to  the  plain  authorization  of  the  Government  to  plunder 
and  kill.  The  Turk  got  from  the  Kurds,  however,  some  of  the  stolen 
mules  and  sheep,  but  kept  them  for  himself.  Besides,  he  did  not 
allow  the  three  Armenians  to  return,  and  nobody  knew  what  befell 
them. 

THE    MASSACRE    OF    1894. 

The  Armenians  of  Sassoon  were  fully  aware  of  the  hostile  inten- 
tion of  the  Government,  but  they  could  not  imagine  it  to  be  one  of 
utter  extermination. 

The  Porte  had  prepared  its  plans.     Sassoon  was  doomed. 

The  Kurds  were  to  come  in  much  greater  number,  the  Govern- 
ment was  to  furnish  them  provision  and  ammunition,  and  the  regular 
army  was  to  second  them  in  case  of  need. 


The  various  tribes  received  invitations  to  take  part  in  the  great 
expedition,  and  the  chiefs,  with  their  men,  arrived  one  after  the  other. 
The  total  number  of  the  Kurds  who  took  part  in  the  campaign,  may 
be  estimated  at  30,000.  The  Armenians  believed,  in  the  beginning, 
that  they  had  to  do  only  with  the  Kurds.  They  found  out,  later, 
that  an  Ottoman  regular  army,  with  provisions,  rifles,  cannons  and 
carosene  oil,  was  standing  at  the  back  of  the  Kurds. 

The  plan  was  to  destroy  first  Shenig,  Semal,  Guelliegoozan, 
Aliantz.  etc.,  and  then  to  proceed  toward  Dalvorig. 

The  Kurds,  notwithstanding  their  immense  number,  proved  to  be 
unequal  to  the  task.  The  Armenians  held  their  own  and  the  Kurds 
got  worsted. 

After  two  weeks  fight  between  Kurd  and  Armenian,  the  regular 
army  entered  into  active  campaign. 

Mountain  pieces  began  to  thunder.  The  Armenians,  having 
nearly  exhausted  their  ammunition,  took  to  flight. 

Kurd  and  Turk  pursued  them  and  massacred  men,  women  and 
children.  The  houses  were  searched  and  then  put  on  fire. 

From  certain  villages  groops  of  men,  tax  receipts  in  their  hands, 
went  to  the  camp  and  asked  to  be  protected,  but  were  slaughtered. 

A  great  number  of  villages,  outside  of  the  Dalvorig  district, 
which  had  in  no  wise  been  concerned  in  the  conflicts  of  the  previous 
years,  were  also  attacked  to  the  unspeakable  horror  of  the 
populations. 

The  troops  climbed  up  even  the  Mount  Antok,  where  a  multitude 
of  fugitives  had  taken  refuge,  and  massacred  them.  A  number  of 
women  and  girls  were  taken  to  the  church  of  Gellsegoozan  and  after 
being  frightfully  abused,  were  tortured  to  death. 

When  the  work  of  destruction  was  nearly  accomplished  in  the 
other  districts,  some  of  the  Kurdish  armies  were  sent  on  Dalvorig. 
The  Dalvorigians  defended  themselves  against  the  astonishing 
number  of  the  barbarians,  but,  after  4  or  5  days,  they  saw  other 
tribes  and  regular  Turkish  troops  marching  on  them  on  everyhand, 
and  they  took  to  flight. 

The  scene  of  the  massacre  was  most  horrible.  The  enemies  took 
a  special  delight  in  butchering  the  Dalvorig  people. 

An  immense  crowd  of  Kurd  and  Turk  soldiery  fell  upon  the 
Dalvorig  village,  busy  to  search  the  houses,  to  find  out  hidden  furni- 
ture, and  then  to  put  fire  to  the  village. 

While  the  troops  were  so  occupied,  a  number  of  the  fugitives  ran 
as  best  they  could  to  get  out  of  the  Dalvorig  district  and  tried  to 
hide  themselves  in  caves,  between  rocks  or  among  bushes. 

Three  days  after  the  complete  destruction  of  the  Dalvorig 
villages,  the  Kurds  and  the  regular  soldiers  divided  among  themselves 
the  result  of  the  plunder,  and  the  Kurds  returned  to  their  own 
mountains. 


The  regular  army  yet  remained  over  a  week.  Soldiers  would 
every  day  go  out  to  hunt  fugitives  in  the  woods  and  rocks. 

My  reporter,  a  native  of  the  Dalvorig  village,  succeeded  in  hid- 
ing from  the  searching  soldiers,  and  when,  twelve  days  after  the 
destruction  of  his  home,  the  army  went  away,  he  came  out  of  his 
hiding  place  and  looked  among  the  corpses  for  his  own  dead. 
He  found  and  buried  his  father,  two  nephews  and  his  aunt.  He  says 
the  bodies  were  swollen  enormously  in  the  sun,  and  the  stench  was 
something  awful  in  all  the  surroundings.  He  witnessed  many  acts  of 
military  cruelties  which  are  not  proper  to  be  reported. 

He  thinks,  from  what  he  saw  himself  and  heard  from  other 
fugitives,  that  not  less  than  70  villages,  including  the  smaller  ones, 
were  totally  or  partially  destroyed  in  Sassoon. 

Twelve  days  after  Dalvorig  was  put  on  fire,  he  found  it  yet 
smoking.  The  villages  of  the  Dalvorig  group  were  heaps  of  ruins, 
and  even  the  fruit  trees  had  been  cut  down  by  the  army. 

After  he  performed  the  duty  of  burying  the  dead  members  of  his 
family,  he,  by  night,  fled  to  the  Moosh  plain,  and  from  there  to  Cau- 
casus. 

M.  S.   G 


'Mr.  Gladstone  on  the  ^Armenian  Question. 


A  MEETING  was  held  in  the  Town  Hall,  Chester,  England,  on 
the  6th  of  August,  for  the  purpose  of  discussing  the  claims  of  the 
Armenians  in  Turkey.  The  assembly  room  at  the  Town  Hall  was 
crowded  to  excess,  and  many  thousands  of  persons  had  to  be  refused 
admission. 

The  duke  of  Westminster  presided,  and  among  those  present 
were  a  great  number  of  members  of  Parliament. 

MR.  GLADSTONE,  who  was  received  with  prolonged  cheers, 
said  : — My  Lord  Duke,  my  Lords,  and  Ladies  and  Gentlemen, — My 
first  observation  shall  be  a  repetition  of  what  has  already  been  said 
by  the  noble  duke,  who  has  assured  you  that  this  meeting  is  not  a 
meeting  called  in  the  interests  of  any  party  (hear,  hear),  or  having  the 
smallest  connexion  with  those  differences  of  opinion  which  naturally 
and  warrantably  in  this  free  country  will  spring  up  in  a  complex  state 
of  affairs,  dividing  us  on  certain  questions  man  from  man.  (Hear, 
hear.)  But,  my  lord  duke,  it  is  satisfactory  to  observe  that  freedom 
of  opinion  and  even  these  divisions  themselves  upon  certain  questions 
give  increased  weight  and  augmented  emphasis  to  the  concurrence  of 
the  people  to  the  cordial  agreement  of  the  whole  nation  in  these 
matters  where  the  broad  principles  of  common  humanity  and  common 
justice  prevail.  (Cheers.) 

A     QUESTION    OF     HUMANITY. 

It  is  perfectly  true  that  the  Government  whose  deeds  we  have  to 
impeach  is  a  Madomedan  Government,  and  it  is  perfectly  true  that 
the  sufferers  under  those  outrages,  under  those  afflictions,  are 
Christian  sufferers.  The  Mahomedan  subjects  of  Turkey  suffer  a 
great  deal,  but  what  they  suffer  is  only  in  the  way  of  the  ordinary 
excesses  and  defects  of  an  intolerably  bad  Government — perhaps 
the  worst  on  the  face  of  the  earth.  (Hear,  hear.)  That  which  we 
have  now  to  do  is,  I  am  sorry  to  say,  the  opening  up  of  an  entirely 
new  chapter.  It  is  not  a  question  of  indifferent  laws  indifferently 
enforced.  It  is  not  a  question  of  administrative  violence  and  admin- 
istrative abuse.  It  cuts  further  and  goes  to  the  root  of  all  that  con- 
cerns human  life  in  its  elementary  conditions.  But  this  I  will  say, 
that  if,  instead  of  dealing  with  the  Turkish  Government  and  impeach- 
ing it  for  its  misdeeds  towards  Christian  subjects,  we  were  dealing 
with  a  Christian  Government  that  was  capable  of  similar  misdeeds 
towards  Mahomedan  subjects,  our  indignation  ought  to  be  not  less, 
but  greater,  than  it  is  now.  (Cheers.)  Well,  1  will  take  the  liberty 


of  reading  a  resolution  which  has  been  placed  in  my  hands  and  which 
seems  to  me  to  express  with  firmness,  but  with  moderation,  the 
opinions  which  I  am  very  confident  this  meeting  will  entertain,  and 
this  meeting,  in  entertaining  such  opinions,  is  but  the  representative 
of  the  country  at  large.  (Cheers.) 

AMERICAN    SYMPATHY    FOR    ARMENIA. 

Allow  me  to  go  further  and  to  say  that  the  country  at  large  in 
entertaining  these  ideas  is  only  a  reprentative  of  civilized  humanity, 
and  I  will  presume  to  speak  on  the  ground,  in  part,  of  personal  know- 
ledge, I  will  presume  to  speak  of  the  opinions  and  sympathies  that 
are  entertained  in  that  part  which  is  most  remote  front  Armenia — I 
mean  among  our  own  Transatlantic  brethren  of  the  United  States, 
i'f  possible,  the  sentiment  in  America  entertained  on  the  subject  of 
these  recent  occurences  is  even  more  vivid  and  even  stronger,  if  it 
can  be,  than  that  which  beats  in  the  hearts  of  the  people  of  this 
country. 

THE    RESOLUTION. 

The  terms  of  the  resolution  are  as  follows  : 

"That  this  meeting  expresses  its  conviction  that  her  Majesty's 
Government  will  have  the  cordial  support  of  the  entire  nation,  with- 
out distinction  of  party,  in  any  measures  which  it  may  adopt  for 
securing  to  the  people  of  Turkish  Armenia  such  reforms  in  the  ad- 
ministration of  that  province  as  shall  provide  effective  guarantees  for 
the  safety  of  life,  honour,  religion,  and  property,  and  that  no  reforms 
can  be  effective  which  are  not  placed  under  the  continuous  control  of 
the  Great  Powers  of  Europe."  (Cheers.) 

That  means,  without  doubt,  the  great  Powers  of  Europe,  all  who 
choose  to  combine,  and  those  great  Powers  which  happily  have  com- 
bined and  have  already,  in  my  judgment,  pledged  their  honour  as 
well  as  their  power  to  the  attainment  of  the  object  we  have  in  view. 
(Cheers.) 

THE    ATROCITIES    PROVED. 

Now,  it  was  my  fate,  I  think  some  six  or  more  months  ago,  to 
address  a  very  limited  number,  not  a  public  assembly,  but  a  limited 
number  of  Armenian  gentlemen,  and  gentlemen  interested  in  Armenia 
on  this  subject;  and  at  that  time  I  ventured  to  point  out  that  one  of 
our  duties  was  to  avoid  premature  judgments.  There  was  no 
authoritative  and  impartial  declaration  before  the  world  at  that  period 
on  the  subject  of  what  is  known  as  the  Sasun  massacre;  that  massacre 
to  which  the  noble  duke  has  alluded  and  with  respect  to  which,  horrible 
as  that  massacre  was,  one  of  the  most  important  witnesses  in  this 
case  declares  that  it  is  thrown  into  the  shade  and  has  become  pale 
and  ineffective  by  the  side  of  the  unspeakable  horrors  which  are  being 
enacted  from  month  to  month,  from  week  to  week,  and  day  to  day  in 
the  different  provinces  of  Armenia.  (Cheers.)  It  was  a  duty  to  avoid 


premature  judgment,  and  I  think  it  was  avoided.  There  was  a  great 
reserve,  but  at  last  the  engine  of  dispassionate  inquiry  was  brought 
to  bear,  and  then  it  was  found  that  another  duty,  very  important  in 
general  in  these  cases,  really  in  this  particular  instance  had  no  par- 
ticular place  at  all,  and  though  it  is  a  duty  to  avoid  exaggeration,  a 
most  sacred  duty,  it  is  a  duty  that  has  little  or  no  place  in  the  case 
before  us,  because  it  is  too  well  known  that  the  powers  of  language 
hardly  suffice  to  describe  what  has  been  and  is  being  done,  and  that 
exaggeration,  if  we  were  ever  so  much  disposed  to  it,  is  in  such  a 
case  really  beyond  our  power.  (Cheers.)  Those  are  dreadful  words 
to  speak.  It  is  a  painful  office  to  perform,  and  nothing  but  a  strong 
sense  of  duty  could  gather  us  together  between  these  walls  or  could 
induce  a  man  of  my  age  and  a  man  who  is  not  wholly  without 
other  difficulties  to  contend  with  to  resign  for  the  moment  that  repose 
and  quietude  which  is  the  last  of  many  great  earthly  blessings  remain- 
ing to  him  in  order  to  invite  you  to  enter  into  a  consideration  of  this 
question — I  will  not  say  in  order  to  invite  you  to  allow  yourselves  to 
be  flooded  with  the  sickening  details  that  it  involves.  I  shall  not 
attempt  to  lead  you  into  that  dreadful  field,  but  I  make  this  appeal  to 
you.  I  do  hope  that  every  one  of  you  will  for  himself  and  herself 
endeavour  in  such  a  degree  as  your  position  may  allow  of  you  to 
endeavour  to  acquire  some  acquaintance  with  them  (hear,  hear), 
because  I  know  that,  when  I  say  that  a  case  of  this  kind  puts  exagger- 
ation out  of  the  question,  I  am  making  a  very  broad  assertion,  which 
would  in  most  cases  be  violent,  which  would  in  all  ordinary  cases  be 
unwarrantable.  But  those  who  will  go  through  the  process  I  have 
described,  or  even  a  limited  portion  of  the  process,  will  find  that  the 
words  are  not  too  strong  for  the  occasion.  (Cheers.)  What  witnesses 
ought  we  to  call  before  us?  I  should  be  disposed  to  say  that  it 
matters  very  little  what  witness  you  call.  So  far  as  the  character  of 
the  testimony  you  will  receive  is  concerned  the  witnesses  are  all 
agreed.  At  the  time  that  I  have  just  spoken  of,  six  or  eight  months 
ago,  they  were  private  witnesses.  Since  that  time,  although  we  have 
not  seen  the  detailed  documents  of  public  authority,  yet  we  know  that 
all  the  broader  statements  which  had  been  made  up  to  that  time  and 
which  have  made  the  blood  of  this  nation  run  cold  have  been  con- 
firmed and  verified.  They  have  not  been  overstated,  not  withdrawn, 
not  qualified,  not  reduced,  but  confirmed  in  all  their  breadth,  in  all 
their  horrible  substance,  in  all  their  sickening  details.  (Hear,  hear.) 

AMERICAN    WITNESSES. 

And  here  I  may  say  that  it  is  not  merely  European  witnesses  with 
whom  we  have  to  deal.  We  have  American  witnesses  also  in  the  field, 
and  the  testimony  of  the  American  witnesses  is  the  same  as  that  of 
the  European  ;  but  it  is  of  still  greater  importance,  and  for  this 
reason — that  everybody  knows  that  America  has  no  separate  or 


i6 

sinister  political  interest  of  any  kind  in  the  affairs  of  the  Levant.  She 
comes  into  court  perfectly  honest  and  perfectly  unsuspected  and  that 
which  she  says  possesses  on  that  account  a  double  weight.  I  will  not 
refer  to  the  witnesses  in  particular,  as  I  have  been  told  you  will 
receive  a  statement  by  my  reverend  friend  Canon  McColl,  who  is  one 
of  them  (cheers)  ;  but  I  believe  they  are  absolutely  agreed,  that  there 
is  no  shade  of  difference  prevailing  among  them. 

DR.    DILLON. 

I  will  refer  to  the  last  of  these  witnesses,  one  whom  I  must  say  I 
am  disposed  to  name  with  honour,  it  is  Dr.  Dillon  (cheers),  whose 
name  has  appeared  within  the  last  three  or  four  days  at  the  foot  of 
an  article  of  unusual  length  — Ah!  and  good  were  the  reasons  for 
extending  it  to  an  unusual  length — in  the  Contemporary  Review. 
(Cheers.)  Perhaps  you  will  ask,  as  I  asked,  "  Who  is  Dr.  Dillon  ?  " 
and  I  am  able  to  describe  him  to  his  honour.  Dr.  Dillon  is  a  man 
who,  as  the  special  commissioner  of  the  Daily  Telegraph  newspaper, 
some  months  ago  with  care  and  labour,  and  with  the  hazard  of  his  life 
(hear,  hear),  went  into  Turkey,  laudably  making  use  of  a  disguise  for 
the  purpose,  and  went  into  Armenia,  so  that  he  might  make  himself 
thoroughly  master  of  the  facts.  (Cheers.)  He  published  his  results 
before  any  public  authority  had  given  utterance  to  its  judgments 
and  those  results  which  he,  I  rather  think,  was  the  first  to  give  to 
the  world  in  a  connected  shape — at  any  rate  he  was  very  early  in  the 
field — those  results  have  been  completely  confirmed  and  established 
by  the  inquiries  of  the  delegates  appointed  by  the  three  Powers — 
England,  France  and  Russia.  (Cheers.)  I  say  he  has,  at  the  risk 
of  his  life,  acquired  a  title  to  be  believed,  and  here  he  gives  us  an 
account  which  bears  upon  it  all  the  marks  of  truth,  but  which,  at  the 
same  time  that  we  must  believe  it  to  be  true,  you  would  say  is  hardly 
credible.  Unhappily  some  of  those  matters  which  are  not  credible 
do,  in  this  strange  and  wayward  world  of  ours,  turn  out  to  be 
true  ;  and  here  it  is  hardly  credible  that  there  can  dwell  in  the 
human  form  a  spirit  of  such  intense  and  diabolical  wickedness  as  is  un- 
happily displayed  in  some  of  the  narratives  Dr.  Dillon  has  laid  before 
the  world.  I  shall  not  quote  from  them  in  detail  though  I  mean  to 
make  a  single  citation,  which  will  be  a  citation,  if  I  may  say  so,  rather  of 
principle  than  of  detail.  I  shall  not  quote  the  details,  but  I  will  say  to 
you  that  when  you  begin  to  read  them  you  will  see  the  truth  of  what 
I  just  now  said — namely  that  we  are  not  dealing  at  all  with  a  common 
and  ordinary  question  of  abuses  of  government  or  the  defects  of 
them.  We  are  dealing  with  something  that  goes  far  deeper,  far  wider, 
and  that  imposes  upon  us  and  upon  you  far  heavier  obligations. 

THE    FOUR    CRIMES. 

The  whole  substance  of  this  remarkable  article — and  it  agrees 
as  I  have  said,  with  the  testimony  of  the  other  witnesses — I  am  quot- 


ing  it  because  it  is  the  latest— the  whole  substance  of  this  article 
may  be  summed  up  in  four  awful  words — plunder,  murder,  rape  and 
torture.  ("  Shame.")  Every  incident  turns  upon  one  or  upon  several 
of  those  awful  words.  Plunder  and  murder  you  would  think  are 
bad  enough,  but  plunder  and  murder  are  almost  venial  by  the  side  of 
the  work  of  the  ravisher  and  the  work  of  the  torturer,  as  it  is  describ- 
ed in  these  pages,  and  as  it  is  now  fully  and  authentically  known  to 
be  going  on.  I  will  keep  my  word,  and  I  will  not  be  tempted 
by — what  shall  I  say  ? — the  dramatic  interest  attached  to  such  ex- 
aggeration of  human  action  as  we  find  here  to  travel  into  the  details 
of  the  facts,  they  are  fitter  for  private  perusal  than  they  are  for 
public  discussion.  I  will  not  be  tempted  to  travel  into  them ;  I 
will  ask  you  for  a  moment,  any  of  you  who  have  not  yourselves 
verified  the  particulars  of  the  case,  to  credit  me  with  speaking  the 
truth,  until  I  go  on  to  consider  who  are  the  doers  of  these  deeds.  In 
all  ordinary  cases  when  we  have  before  us  instances  of  crime,  perhaps 
of  very  horrible  crime — for  example,  there  is  a  sad  story  in  the  papers 
to-day  of  a  massacre  in  a  portion  of  China — we  at  once  assume  that  in 
all  countries,  unfortunately,  there  are  malefactors,  there  are  plunder- 
ers whose  deeds  we  are  going  to  consider.  Here,  my  lord  duke,  it  is 
nothing  of  the  kind  ;  we  have  nothing  to  do  here  with  what  are  called 
the  dangerous  classes  of  the  community  ;  it  is  not  their  proceedings 
which  you  are  asked  to  consider  ;  it  is  the  proceedings  of  the  Govern- 
ment of  Constantinople  and  its  agents.  (Cheers.) 

THE    TURKISH    GOVERNMENT    RESPONSIBLE. 

There  is  not  one  of  these  misdeeds  for  which  the  Government  at 
Constantinople  is  not  morally  responsible.  (Cheers.)  Now,  who  are 
these  agents  ?  Let  me  tell  you  very  briefly.  They  fall  into  three 
classes.  The  first  have  been  mentioned  by  the  noble  duke — namely 
the  savage  Kurds,  who  are,  unhappily,  the  neighbors  of  the  Armenians,, 
the  Armenians  being  the  representatives  of  one  of  the  oldest  civilized 
Christian  races,  and  being  beyond  all  doubt  one  of  the  most  pacific, 
one  of  the  most  industrious,  and  one  of  the  most  intelligent  races  in 
the  world.  (Cheers.)  These  Kurds  are  by  them  ;  they  are  wild,, 
savage  clans.  There  was  but  one  word,  my  lord  duke,  in  your 
address  that  I  should  have  been  disposed  to  literally  criticize,  and  it 
was  the  expression  that  fell  from  you  that  the  Sultan  had  "organized" 
hes  e  Kurds.  They  are,  in  my  belief,  in  no  sense  organized — that  is 
to  say  there  is  no  more  organization  among  them  than  is  to  be  found, 
say,  in  a  band  of  robbers  ;  they  have  no  other  organization,  being 
nothing  but  a  band  of  robbers.  (Cheers.)  These  the  Sultan  and  the 
Government  at  Constantinople  have  enrolled,  though  in  a  nominal 
fashion,  not  with  at  military  discipline,  into  pretended  cavalry  regiment 
and  then  set  them  loose  with  the  authority  of  soldiers  of  the  Sultan 
to  harry  and  destroy  the  people  of  Armenia.  (Cheers.)  Well,  these 


i8 

Kurds  are  the  first  of  the  agents  in  this  horrible  business  ;  the  next 
are  the  Turkish  soldiers,  who  are  in  no  sense  behind  the  Kurds  in 
their  performances  ;  the  third  are  the  peace  officers,  the  police  and 
the  tax  gatherers  of  the  Turkish  Government;  and  there  seems  to  be 
a  deadly  competition  among  all  these  classes  which  shall  most  prove 
itself  an  adept  in  the  horrible  and  infernal  work  that  is  before  them, 
but  above  them  and  more  guilty  than  they,  are  the  higher  officers  of 
the  Turkish  Government.  You  will  find,  if  you  look  into  this  paper 
of  Dr.  Dillon's,  that  at  every  point  he  has  exposed  himself  to  con- 
futation if  what  he  says  is  inaccurate  or  untrue.  He  gives  names, 
titles,  places,  dates,  every  particular  which  would  enable  the  Turkish 
Government  to  track  him  out  and  detect  him  and  hold  him  up  to 
public  reprobation.  You  will  never  hear  of  an  answer  from  the 
Turkish  Government  to  that  article.  That  may  be  a  bold  thing  for 
me  to  say  ;  but  I  am  confident  you  will  never  hear  an  answer  from 
them  which  shall  follow  these  statements  of  Dr.  Dillon's,  based  on  his 
own  personal  experience,  through  the  details,  and  attempt  to  shake 
the  fabric  of  greviously  composed  materials  which  he  has  built  up  in 
the  face  of  the  world. 

THREE    PROPOSITIONS. 

I  THINK  there  are  certain  matters,  such  as  those  which  have  been 
discussed  to-day  and  discussed  in  many  other  forms,  on  which  it  is 
perfectly  possible  to  make  up  our  minds.  And  what  I  should  say  is, 
that  the  whole  position  may  be  summed  up  in  three  brief  propositions. 
I  do  not  know  to  which  of  these  propositions  to  assign  the  less  or  the 
greater  importance.  It  appears  to  me  that  they  are  probably  each 
and  everyone  of  them  absolutely  indispensable.  The  fir.st  proposition 
is  this,  You  ought  to  moderate  your  demands.  You  ought  to  ask  for 
nothing  but  that  which  is  strictly  necessary,  and  that  possibly  accord- 
ing to  all  that  we  know  of  the  proposals  before  us,  the  rule  has  been 
rigidly  complied  with.  I  do  not  hesitate  to  say,  ladies  and  gentlemen, 
that  the  cleanest  and  clearest  method  of  dealing  with  this  subject,  if 
we  should  have  done  it,  would  have  been  to  tell  the  Turk  to  march 
out  of  Armenia.  (Loud  cheers).  He  has  no  right  to  remain  there, 
and  it  would  have  been  an  excellent  settlement  of  the  question.  But 
it  is  by  no  means  certain  that  Europe  or  even  the  three  Powers  would 
have  been  unanimous  in  seeking  after  that  end.  Therefore;  let  us 
part  with  everything  except  what  is  known  to  be  indispensable.  Then 
I  come  to  the  other  two  rules,  and  of  these  the  first  is  that  you  should 
accept  no  Turkish  promises  (Hear,  hear).  They  are  absolutely  and 
entirely  worthless.  They  are  worse  than  worthless,  because  they 
may  serve  to  elude  a  few  persons  who,  without  information  or  experi- 
•ence,  naturally  would  suppose,  when  promises  are  given,  that  there  is 
something  like  an  intention  of  fulfilment.  Recollect  that  no  scheme 
is  worth  having  unless  it  be  supported  by  efficient  guarantees  entirely 


19 

outside    the    promises    of    the    Turkish    Government.       (Applause). 
There  is  another  word  which  I  must  speak,  and  it  is  this:  Don't  be  to 
much  afraid  if  you  hear  introduced  into  this  discussion  a  word  that  I 
admit,  in  ordinary  cases,  ought   to  be  excluded  from  all  diplomatic 
proceeding,  namely,  th'e  word  coercion.     Coercion  is  a  word  perfectly 
well  understood  in  Constantinople,  and  it  is  a  word  highly  appreciated 
in   Constanstinople.     It  is  a  drastic  dose — (laughter) — which  never 
fails  of  its  aim  when  it  is  administered  in  that  quarter.      (Laughter) 
Gentlemen,  I  would  not  use  these  words  if  I  had  not  myself  person- 
ally had  large  and  close  experience  of  the  proceedings  of  the  Turkish 
Government.     I  say,  first  make  your  case  good,  and  when  your  case 
is  made  good,  determine  that  it  shall  prevail.      (Cheers).      Grammar 
has  something  to  do  with  this  case.     Recollect  that  while  the  word 
"ought"  sounded  in  Constantinople,  passes  in  thin  air,  and   has  no 
force  or  solidity  whatever  attaching  to  it;  on  the  contrary,  the  brother 
or  sister  monosyllable,  the  word   "must"  is  perfectly  understood — 
(cheers) — and  it  is  a  known   fact  supported  by  positive  experience, 
which  can  be  verified  upon  the  map  of  Europe,  that  a  timely  and 
judicious  use  of  ths  word  never  fails  for  its  effect.    (Cheers).    Gentle- 
men, I  must  point  out  to  you  that  we  have  reached   a  very  critical 
position  indeed.     How  are  three  great  Governments  in  Europe,  ruling 
a  population  of  more  than  two  hundred  million  souls,  with  perhaps 
eight  or  ten  times  the  population   of  Turkey,  with  twenty  times  the 
wealth  of  Turkey,  with  fifty   times  the  the  influence  and  power  of 
Turkey,  who  have  committed  themselves  in  this  matter  before  the 
world,  I  put  it  to  you  that  if  they  recede  before  an  irrational  resistance 
— and  remember  that  I  have  in  the  first  instance  postulated  that  our 
demands  should  be  reasonable — if  they  recede  before  the  irrational 
resistance  of  the  Sultan  and  the  Ottoman  Government  they  are  dis- 
graced in  the  face  of  the  world.     Every  motive  of  duty  coincides  with 
every  motive  of  self  respect,  and,  my  lord  duke,  you  yourself  let  drop 
a  word  which  is  a  frightful  word,  unhappily  not  wholly  out  of  place, 
the  word 

"  EXTERMINATION." 

There  has  gone  abroad,  I  don't  say  that  I  feel  myself  competent  to 
judge  the  matter,  I  don't  think  I  do,  but  there  has  gone  abroad  and 
there,  is  widely  entertained  a  belief  that  the  recent  proceedings  of 
the  Turkish  Government  in  Armenia  particularly,  but  not  in  Armenia 
exclusively,  are  founded  upon  deliberate  determination  to  exterminate 
the  Christians  in  that  Empire.  I  hope  it  is  not  true,  but  at  the  same 
time  I  must  say  that  there  are  evidences  tending  to  support  it — (hear, 
hear) — and  the  grand  evidence  which  tends  to  support  it  is  this:  the 
perfect  infatuation  of  the  Turkish  Goverment.  Now,  in  my  time 
there  have  been  periods  when  Turkey  was  ruled  by  men  of  honesty 
and  ability.  I  will  say  that  until  about  thirty  years  ago  you  could 
trust  the  word  of  the  Turkish  Government  as  well  as  any  Government 


in  Europe,  you  might  not  approve  of  their  proceedings,  but  you  could 
.trust  their  word;  but  a  kind  of  judicial  infatuation  appears  to  have 
come  down  upon  them.     What  has  happened  in   Turkey  ?      To   hear 
of  this  vaunting  on   the  part  of  its   Government,  and   this   game   of 
brag  that  is  from  time   to   time  being  played,   that   it  cannot   com- 
promise its  dignity,  it  cannot  waive  any  of  its  rights.     What  would 
come  of  its  rights  in  one  third  part   of  its  empire  ?     Within  my   life- 
time Turkey  has  been  reduced  by  one-third  part  of  her  territory,  and 
sixteen  or  eighteen  millions  of  people  inhabiting  some  of  the   most 
beautiful  and  formerly  most  famous  countries  in  the  world  who  were 
under  the  Ottoman  rule  are  now  as  free  as  we  are.       (Cheers).     The 
Ottoman  Government  are  as  well  aware  of  that  as  we,  and   yet  we 
find  it  pursuing  these  insane  courses.     On   the  other  hand,  my   lord 
Duke  most  judiciously  referred  to  the  plan  of  Government  that   was 
introduced  in  the  Lebanon  about  1861,  whereby  a  reasonable  share  of 
stability  to  local  institutions  and  popular  control   has  been  given  in 
Turkey,  and  the  results  have  been  most  satisfactory.      There  is  also 
a  part  of  the  country,  although  not  a  very    large   part,  where    some- 
thing like  local  self-government  is   permitted,  and  it  has   been    very 
hopeful  in  its  character.     But  when  we  see  these  things — on   the  one 
hand  that  these  experiments  in  a  sense  of  justice  have  all  succeeded 
and  that  when  adapted  to  the  Greeks  and  the  Bulgarians  and  four  of 
five  other  States    have   resulted   in    the    loss   of    those  States,  then 
I    say  that  the  Turkish  Government  is  evidently  in  such  a   state  of 
infatuation  that  it  is  fain  to  believe   it  may,  under  certain   circum- 
stances, be  infatuated  enough  to  scheme  the  extermination  of   the 
Christian  population.     Well,  this  is  a  sad   and  terrible  story,  and   I 
have  been  a  very  long  time  in  telling  it,  but  a  very  small  part  of  it, 
but  I  hope  that,  having  heard  the  terms  of  the  resolution  that  will  be 
submitted  to  you,  you  will  agree  that  a  case  is  made  out.      (Cheers). 
I  for  one,  for  the  sake  of  avoiding  other  complications,  would  rejoice 
if    the   Government   of    Turkey    would    come    to   its     senses.        If 
only  men  like    Friad   Pacha  and    Ali  Pacha  who  were  in   the  Gov- 
ernment  of    Turkey    after    the    Crimean    War,     could     be    raised 
from   the  dead  and   could  inspire  the  Turkish  policy  with  their  spirit 
and  with  their  principles!      That  is,  in  my  opinion,  what  we  ought  all 
to  desire,  and   thought  it  would  be  more  agreeable   to  clear  Turkey 
than  to  find  her  guilty  of  these  terrible  charges,  yet  if  we  have   the 
smallest  regard  to  humanity,  if  we  are  sensible  at  all  of  what  is  due  to 
our  own   honour  after  the  steps  which  have  been  taken  within  the 
last  twelve  or  eighteen  mo  iths,  we  must  interfere.     We  must  be  care- 
ful to  demand  no  more  than  what  is  just — but  at  least  as  much   as  is 
necessary — and   we  must  be  determined  that,  with  the   help  of  God 
that  which  is  necessary,  and  that  which  is  just  shall  be  done,  whether 
there  will  be  a  response  or  whether  there  be  none.     (Loud  cheers). 


The  Condition  of  ^Armenia. 

BY  E    J.  DILLON. 

A  PRETTY  story  is  told  of  a  little  girl,  who,  fearing  to  lie  in  bed 
in  the  dark,  begged  her  mother  not  to  take  the  candle  away  until 
sleep  should  render  it  needless.  "  What  are  you  afraid  of,  darling  ? " 
asked  the  strong-minded  parent.  "  Of  darkness,"  was  the  reply. 
"  But  remember,  dear,  that  God  is  here  in  the  room  with  you,  and 
God  is  light  itself.  He  will  stay  with  you  all  night  to  keep  you  com- 
pany." The  silence  that  followed  this  dogmatic  announcement 
seemed  to  show  that  the  intended  effect  had  been  produced,  until  it 
was  softly  broken  by  the  sweet  voice  of  the  child:  "  Then,  please 
mamma,  take  God  away  and  leave  the  candle." 

The  attitude  of  the  Armenian  population  in  Turkey  towards  the 
humane  peoples  of  Western  Europe  who,  to  fiendish  tortures  and 
bloody  massacres,  hopefully  oppose  well-timed  expressions  of  right- 
eous indignation  and  moral  sympathy,  offers  considerable  analogy  to 
the  frame  of  mind  of  that  untutored  child.  "We  can  dispense  with 
your  sympathy  and  pity  if  only  you  guarantee  us  security  for  life  and 
property."  So  reasons  the  grateful  Armenian.  The  impartial  out- 
sider, acquainted  with  the  horrible  condition  of  country  and  people, 
would  naturally  go  a  step  further,  and  fearlessly  affirm  that  the 
expression  of  sympathy  at  public  meetings,  followed,  as  in  England, 
by  supine  inactivity,  is  not  merely  inferior  to  effective  material  aid, 
but  is  positively  disastrous.  Formerly  the  Turks  disliked  the 
Armenians,  and  the  blood-bath  of  Sassoun  offers  a  fair  indication  of 
the  vehemence  of  their  feeling.  At  present,  after  the  wanton 
humiliation  inflicted  upon  them  by  the  European  friends  of  their 
victims,  they  loathe  the  very  name  of  Armenia,  and  deem  no  cruelties 
sufficient  to  satisfy  their  outraged  self-love.  The  Vali  (Governor- 
General)  of  Krzeroum,  when  the  foreign  consuls  of  that  city  lately 
brought  an  unusually  crying  case  of  injustice  to  his  notice,  told  the 
Dragomans  that  the  Turkish  Government  and  Armenian  people 
stood  to  each  other  in  the  relation  of  husband  and  wife,  and  that 
outsiders  who  felt  pity  for  the  wife  when  her  husband  maltreated  her, 
would  do  wisely  and  well  to  abstain  from  interfering.  And  the  re- 
mark is  quite  true,  if  the  pair  are  to  go  on  living  together  j  for  the 
brutal  husband  can  always  choose  his  own  time  and  place  to  vent  his 
feelings  on  his  helpless  mate.  And  this  is  what  is  being  actually  done 
in  Turkish  Armenia.  Under  the  eyes  of  the  Russian,  English,  and 
French  delegates  at  Moush,  the  witnesses  who  had  the  courage  to 
speak  the  truth  to  the  representatives  of  the  Powers  were  thrown  into 
prison,  and  not  a  hand  was  raised  to  protect  them;  and  at  the  present 


moment,  within  a  stone's  throw  of  the  foreign  consuls  and  missionaries, 
loyal  Armenians  are  being  hung  up  by  the  heels,  the  hair  of  their 
heads  and  beards  plucked  out  one  by  one,  their  bodies  branded  with 
red-hot  irons  and  defiled  in  beastly  ways  that  can  neither  be  described 
nor  hinted  at  in  England,  their  wives  dishonoured  in  their  presence, 
and  their  daughters  raped  before  their  eyes.  And  all  that  the  philan- 
thropic English  nation  has  to  offer  these  its  proteges,  is  eloquent  indig- 
nation and  barren  sympathy.  Would  it  not  have  been  much  more 
benevolent  to  hush  up  the  massacre  of  Sassoun  and  ignore  the  Pits 
of  Death  than  to  irritate  the  Turk  to  the  point  of  madness  and  then 
leave  him  free  to  vent  his  fury  upon  Christians  who  are  shielded  only 
by  our  sentimental  eloquence  ? 

And  yet  the  duty  of  this  country  is  simplicity  itself ;  we  should 
either  put  a  speedy  end  to  the  horrors  of  Turkish  Dahomey  or  pub- 
licly proclaim  our  inability  to  fulfil  our  obligations  in  Armenia,  at  the 
same  time  repudiating  our  gigantic  engagement  to  maintain  the 
integrity  of  the  Turkish  Empire  in  Asia.  For  as  it  was  a  grievous 
blunder  to  raise  this  Armenian  Question  last  winter  without  having 
first  made  sure  that  we  could  work  it  out  to  a  satisfactory  issue,  it  is 
little  less  than  a  crime  to  give  the  Turks  the  needful  time  to  carry 
out  their  nefarious  plans  by  our  obstinate  refusal  to  look  the  facts  in 
the  face. 

Those  who  are  familiar  with  the  condition  of  the  five  provinces 
and  their  Christian  inhabitants  will  unhesitatingly  acquiesce  in  this 
view  of  the  subject;  for  those  who  are  not,  the  following  brief  sketch 
may  prove  instructive. 

Turkey's  real  sway  in  Armenia  dates  from  the  year  1847,  when 
Osman  Pasha  gave  the  final  coup  de  grdce  to  the  secular  power  of  the 
Koordish  Derebeks  in  the  five  south-eastern  provinces  (Van,  Bitlis, 
Moush,  Bayazed,  and  Diarbekir).  During  that  long  spell  of  nearly 
fifty  years,  we  can  clearly  distinguish  two  periods:  one  of  shameful 
misgovernment  (1847-1891),  and  the  other  (1892-1894)  of  frank  ex- 
termination. Suasion  or  remonstrance  may  do  much  to  remedy  the 
abuses  that  flow  from  the  former  system;  force  alone  can  achieve 
anything  against  the  latter.  And  in  this  sense  Lord  Salisbury's 
recently  expressed  view  of  the  matter  is  absolutely  correct. 

In  the  year  1891  the  Sublime  Porte  fearing  serious  dangers  from 
the  promised  introduction  of  reforms  into  Armenia,  and  from  the 
anticipated  hostility  in  war  time  of  the  Christians  living  in  provinces 
bordering  upon  Russia,  resolved  to  kill  two  birds  with  one  stone,  and 
created  the  so  called  Hamidieh  cavalry,  composed  exclusively  of 
Koords.  It  was  an  application  of  the  principle,  on  which  rebels  and 
and  rioters  throw  open  the  prison  doors  and  invite  convicts  to  rob 
and  kill  the  members  of  the  upper  classes.  The  plan  as  propounded 
by  some  of  the  highest  officials  of  the  Empire  was  that  the  Armenians 
were  to  be  driven  out  of  the  border  lands,  such  as  Alashkerd,  their 


23 

places  to  be  taken  by  Mohammedans,  that  their  numbers  in  all  the 
five  provinces  were  to  be  so  considerably  reduced  that  the  need  of 
special  reforms  for  them  should  pass  away,  and  that  in  case  of  war 
the  Koords  should  act  as  a  counterweight  to  the  Cossacks. 

This  plain  policy  of  extermination  has  been  faithfully  carried  out 
and  considerably  extended  from  that  day  to  this,  and  unless  speedily 
arrested,  will  undoubtedly  lead  to  a  final  solution  of  the  Armenian 
problem.  But  a  solution  which  will  disgrace  Christianity  and  laugh 
civilization  to  scorn.  The  enlisted  Koords  were  left  in  their  native 
places,  exempted  from  service,  supplied  with  arms,  invested  with  the 
inviolability  of  ambassadors,  and  paid  with  the  regularity  character- 
istic of  the  Sublime  Porte.  And  they  fulfilled  their  mission  with 
scrupulous  exactness  :  robbing  rich  Armenians,  looting  houses,  burn- 
ing corn  and  hay,  raiding  villages,  lifting  cattle,  raping  young  girls  of 
tender  age,  dishonouring  married  women,  driving  away  entire  popu- 
lations, and  killing  all  who  were  manly  or  mad  enough  to  attempt  to 
resist.  Armenians  are  now  among  the  poorest  and  most  wretched 
people  on  the  globe. 

Perhaps  the  Turkish  authorities  did  not  foresee,  nor  Turkish  jus- 
tice approve,  these  results  ?  The  authorities  not  only  expected  them, 
but  aided  and  abetted,  incited  and  rewarded  those  who  actually  com- 
mitted them;  and  whenever  an  Armenian  dared  to  complain,  not  only 
was  he  not  listened  to  by  the  officials  whom  he  paid  to  protect  him, 
but  he  was  thrown  into  a  fetid  prison  and  tortured  and  outraged  in 
strange  and  horrible  ways  for  his  presumption  and  insolence. 

The  massacre  of  Sassoun  itself  is  now  proved  to  have  been  the 
deliberate  deed  of  the  representatives  of  the  Sublime  Porte,  carefully 
planned  and  unflinchingly  executed  in  spite  of  the  squeamishness  of 
Koordish  brigands  and  the  fitful  gleams  of  human  nature  that  occa- 
sionally made  themselves  felt  in  the  hearts  even  of  Turkish  soldiers. 

To  complain,  therefore,  of  the  insecurity  of  life  and  property  in 
Armenia,  so  long  as  the  country  is  irresponsibly  governed  by  the 
Sublime  Porte,  is  as  reasonable  as  it  would  be  for  a  soldier  to  object 
to  the  great  danger  to  life  and  limb  from  the  enemy's  bullets  during 
a  sanguinary  engagement.  The  result  complained  of  is  precisely  the 
object  aimed  at,  and  its  completeness  the  most  conclusive  proof  of 
the  efficiency  of  the  means  employed.  An  eminent  foreign  statesman 
who  is  commonly  credited  with  Turcophile  sentiments  of  uncompro- 
mising thoroughness,  lately  remarked  to  me  in  private  conversation 
that  Turkish  rule  in  Armenia  might  be  aptly  described  as  organized 
brigandage,  legalized  murder,  and  meritorious  immorality.  Protests 
against  such  a  system  may  be  right  and  proper,  but  they  can  hardly 
be  considered  profitable.  A  philanthropist  visiting  a  prison  may  feel 
shocked  when  he  discovers  one  of  the  convicts  with  his  hands  and 
feet  tied  with  cords;  but  he  will  scarcely  spend  time  in  complaining  if 


24 

he  learns  that  the  prisoner  has  been  condemned  to  death,  and  is  about 
to  be  hanged  by  the  executioner. 

The  first  step  in  carrying  out  the  Plan  of  Extermination  was  the 
systematic  impoverishment  of  the  people.  This  is  natural  in  a 
country  whose  officials  are  kept  waiting  eight  or  ten  months  for  their 
salaries,  and  must  then  content  themselves  with  but  a  fraction  of  what 
is  due.  "I  have  not  received  a  para*  for  the  past  twenty  weeks,  and 
I  cannot  buy  even  clothes,"  exclaimed  the  official  who  was  told  off  to 
"shadow"  me  day  and  night  in  Erzeroum.  "Do  they  pay  you  your 
salary  regularly?"  I  inquired  of  the  head  of  the  telegraph  office  at 
Kutek.  "No,  Effendi,  not  regularly,"  he  replied;  "I  have  not  had 
anything  now  for  fully  eight  months.  Oh  yes,  I  have;  a  month's 
salary  was  given  to  me  at  Bairam."f  "How  do  you  manage  to  live, 
then  ?"  "Poorly."  "But  you  must  have  some  money  to  go  on  with, 
or  else  you  could  not  keep  body  and  soul  together?"  "I  have  a  little, 
of  course,  but  not  enough.  Allah  is  good.  You  have  now  given  me 
some  money  yourself."  "Yes,  but  that  is  not  for  you;  it  is  for  tele- 
grams, and  belongs  to  the  State."  "Well,  my  shadow  will  have 
grown  considerably  less  before  the  State  beholds  the  gleam  of  it.  I 
keep  for  myself  all  money  paid  in  by  the  public.  I  take  it  as  instal- 
ments of  my  salary.  It  does  not  amount  to  very  much.  But  whatever 
it  happens  to  be,  I  pocket  it."  These  men  are,  of  course,  petty 
officials,  but  their  case  is  not  essentially  different  from  that  of  the 
majority  of  their  betters,  and  judges,  officers,  deputy-governors,  and 
valis,  etc.,  etc.,  are  to  the  full  as  impecunious  and  incomparably  more 
greedy. 

Tahsin  Pasha,  the  late  Governor-General  of  Bitlis,  is  a  fair  speci- 
men of  the  high  Turkish  dignitary  of  the  epoch  of  extermination. 
An  avaricious  skinflint,  he  was  as  cruel  as  Ugolino's  enemy,  Ruggieri, 
and  as  cold  as  Captain  Maleger  in  Spenser's  "Faery  Queen."  He 
cultivated  a  habit  of  imprisoning  scores  of  wealthy  Armenians,  with- 
out any  imputed  charge  or  show  of  pretext.  Liberty  was  then  offered 
them  in  return  for  exorbitant  sums  representing  the  greater  part  of 
their  substance.  Refusal  to  pay  was  followed  by  treatment  compared 
with  which  the  torture  of  the  Jews  in  mediaeval  England,  or  the 
agonies  of  the  eunuchs  of  the  princesses  of  Oude  in  modern  India 
were  mild  and  salutary  chastisements.  Some  men  were  kept  standing 
up  all  day  and  night,  forbidden  to  eat,  drink,  or  move.  If  they  lost 
strength  and  consciousness,  cold  water  or  hot  irons  soon  brought  them 
round,  and  the  work  of  coercion  continued.  Time  and  perseverance 
being  on  the  side  of  the  Turks,  the  Armenians  generally  ended  by 
sacrificing  everything  that  made  life  valuable,  for  the  sake  of  exemp- 
tion from  maddening  pain.  It  was  a  case  of  sacrificing  or  being 


*A  Turkish  coin.     Forty  paras  are  equivalent  to  twopence. 
fBairam  is  the  festival  which  follows  the  long  fast  of  Ramazan. 


25 

sacrificed,  and  that  which  seemed  the  lesser  of  the  two  evils  was 
invariably  chosen. 

In  the  Vilayet  of  Bitlis  several  hundred  Armenians  who  possessed 
money,  cattle  or  crops,  were  arbitrarily  imprisoned  and  set  free  on  the 
payment  of  large  bribes.  Some  of  them,  unable  to  produce  the 
money  at  once,  were  kept  in  the  noisome  dungeons  until  they  raised 
the  sum  demanded,  or  were  released  by  death.  About  one  hundred 
Armenian  prisoners  died  in  the  prison  of  Bitlis  alone.  The  following 
petition  signed  and  sent  to  me — and  if  I  mistake  not,  also  to  the 
foreign  delegates  at  Moush — from  a  well-known  man  whose  name 
and  address  I  publish,  will  help  to  convey  some  idea  of  how  the  Vali 
of  Bitlis  governed  his  province,  and  prospered  the  while:  "We,  who 
have  served  the  Turkish  Government  with  absolute  loyalty,  are 
maltreated  and  oppressed,  more  particularly  of  late  years,  now  by  the 
Government  itself,  now  by  Koordish  brigands.  Thus  last  year  (1894) 
I  was  suddenly  arrested  at  my  own  house  by  Turkish  police  and  gen- 
darmes, who  escorted  me  to  the  prison  of  Bitlis.  where  I  was  insulted 
and  subjected  to  the  most  horrible  tortures.  Having  been  kept  four 
months  there,  I  was  released  on  condition  of  paying  ^450,  by  way 
of  ransom.  No  reason,  no  pretext  has  been  given  for  this  treatment. 
•On  my  return  home,  I  found  my  house  in  disorder,  my  affairs  ruined, 
my  means  gone.  My  first  thought  was  to  appeal  to  the  Turkish 
Government  for  redress,  but  I  shrank  from  doing  so,  lest  I  should  be 
condemned  again.  Hearing  that  you  have  come  to  Armenia  for  the 
purpose  of  investigating  the  condition  of  the  people,  I  venture  to 
request  you,  in  God's  name,  to  take  notice  of  the  facts  of  my  case. 
Signed,  Boghos  Darmanian,  of  the  village  of  Iknakhodja  of  the  Kaza 
of  Manazkerd." 

In  1890,  the  village  elder  of  Odandjor  in  Boolanyk,  Abdal  by 
name,  was  a  wealthy  man,  as  wealth  goes  in  that  part  of  the  world. 
He  possessed  50  buffaloes,  80  oxen,  600  sheep,  besides  horses,  etc. 
The  women  of  his  family  wore  golden  ornaments  in  their  hair  and  on 
their  breast,  and  he  paid  ^50  a  year  in  taxes  to  the  treasury.  That 
was  in  1890.  In  1894  he  was  a  poverty-stricken  peasant,  familiar 
with  misery  and  apprehensive  of  death  from  hunger.  His  village  and 
those  of  the  entire  district  had  been  plundered,  and  the  inhabitants 
stripped,  so  to  say,  naked,  the  Turkish  authorities  smiling  approval 
the  while.  During  the  year  1894,  in  the  districts  of  Boolanyk  and 
Moush  alone,  upwards  of  ten  thousand  head  of  cattle  and  sheep  were 
driven  off  by  the  Koords. 

This  was  the  method  in  vogue  all  over  the  country;  the  details 
varied  according  to  the  condition  of  things,  places,  and  kinglets,  but 
the  means  and  end  never  varied.  The  result  is  the  utter  disap- 
pearance of  wealth  and  the  rapid  spread  of  misery,  so  intense,  so 
irremediable,  so  utterly  loathsome  in  its  moral  and  physical  effects  as 


26 

to  have  inspired  some  of  its  victims  with  that  wild  courage  akin  to- 
madness  which  always  takes  its  rise  in  despair.* 

Retween  the  Vali  or  Governor-General  and  the  Zaptieh  or  tax- 
gatherer  the  rungs  of  the  administrative  ladder  are  many,  and  to  each 
and  all  of  them  some  portion  of  the  substance  of  industrious  Arme- 
nians adheres.  No  doubt  there  are  far  worse  things  than  the  loss  of 
one's  property,  and  unemotional  Englishmen  would  rather  save  their 
sympathy  for  those  who  have  endured  them.  But  surely  even  that  is 
bad  enough  when  the  outcome  not  of  crime,  accident,  or  carelessness, 
but  of  shameless  and  defiant  injustice,  and  where  the  loser  has  a 
family  of  some  fifteen  to  twenty  persons.  And  that  the  loss  of  prop- 
erty very  often  entailed  far  greater  losses  will  be  evident  from  some 
of  the  following  facts. 

In  July,  1892,  a  captain  of  his  Majesty's  Hamidieh  Cavalry,  Idris 
by  name,  an  ornament  of  the  Hassnanlee  tribe,  came  with  his  brother 
to  demand  a  contribution  of  fodder  from  the  inhabitants  of  Hamsis- 
heikh.  They  accosted  two  of  the  Armenian  notables,  Alo  and 
Hatchadoor,  and  ordered  them  to  provide  the  hay  required.  "We  do 
not  possess  such  a  quantity  in  the  whole  village,"  they  replied. 
"  Produce  the  hay  without  more  ado,  or  I'll  shoot  you  dead,"  ex- 
claimed Idris.  "But  it  does  not  exist,  and  we  cannot  create  it." 
"Then  die,"  said  the  gallant  captain,  and  shot  them  dead  on  the  spot. 
A  formal  complaint  was  lodged  against  Idris,  and  the  Kaimakam,  to 
his  credit,  arrested  him  and  kept  him  in  prison  for  four  weeks,  when 
the  valiant  Koord  having  paid  the  usual  bribe  was  set  at  liberty. 
About  thirty  similar  murders  were  committed  in  the  same  district  of 
Boolanyk  during  that  season,  with  the  same  publicity  and  the  same 
impunity. 

At  first  the  Armenians  were  wont  to  complain  when  their  relatives 
or  friends  were  killed,  in  the  hope  that  in  some  cases  the  arm  of  the 
law  might  be  raised  to  punish  the  murderers  and  thus  produce  a 
deterrent  effect  upon  others  who  might  feel  disposed  to  go  and  do 
likewise.  But  they  were  very  soon  weaned  of  this  habit,  by  methods 
the  nature  of  which  may  be  gathered  from  the  following  incident:  In 
July,  1892,  a  Koord  named  Ahmed  Ogloo  Batal  rode  over  to  Govan- 
dook  (District  of  Khnouss)  and  drove  off  four  oxen  belonging  to  an 
Armenian  named  Mookho.  In  1892  the  law  forbidding  Christians  to 
carry  arms  was  not  yet  strictly  observed,  and  Mookho  possessing  a 
revolver,  and  seeing  that  the  Koord  was  about  to  use  his,  fired.  Both 
weapons  went  off  at  once  and  both  men  fell  dead  on  the  spot.  What 
then  happened  was  this  :  Nineteen  Armenians  of  the  village,  none  of 
whom  had  any  knowledge  of  what  had  occurred,  were  arrested  and 


*I  have  published  elsewhere  a  comparison  between  the  prosperity  of  Armenians 
who  lived  in  the  epoch  of  misgovernment  and  the  indigence  of  those  who  languish  in 
the  present  era  of  extermination,  but  this  interesting  subject  has  never  been  exhaust, 
ively  treated. 


27 

put  in  jail  and  told  that  they  would  be  released  on  payment  of  a  heavy 
bribe.  Ten  paid  it  and  were  set  free  at  once.  The  remainder,  refus- 
ing, were  kept  in  prison  for  a  long  time  afterwards.  None  of  the 
Koofds  were  molested.  "Why  should  Mohammedans  be  punished  for 
killing  Armenians?"  asked  a  Koordish  brigand  who  was  also  a  Hami- 
dieh  officer,  of  me.  "It  is  unheard  of."  Why  indeed?  That  the 
relatives  of  the  murdered  people  should  be  punished  and  punished 
severely  for  complaining  of  those  who  have  made  them  widows  or 
orphans  seems  meet  and  proper  to  the  Mohammedan  mind — perhaps 
because  it  is  usual. 

In  August,  1893,  the  Djibranlee  Koords  attacked  the  village  of 
Kaghkik,  plundered  it,  and  wounded  a  merchant  named  Cannes,  who 
was  engaged  in  business  in  his  shop.  Next  day  Cannes  went  to  the 
Deputy  Governor  (Kaimakam)  in  Khnoussaberd  and  lodged  a  com- 
plaint, whereupon  the  Kaimakam  put  him  in  prison  for  "lying."  The 
sufferings  inflicted  upon  him  in  that  hotbed  of  typhoid  fever  exceed 
belief — but  that  is  another  story.  After  eight  days  his  neighbours 
brought  a  Koord  before  the  Kaimakam  who  bore  out  their  evidence 
that  Cannes  had  been  really  wounded  in  the  manner  described,  and 
that  he  was  not  lying.  Then,  and  then  only,  the  authorities  allowed 
the  people  to  pay  a  bribe  of  ten  pounds  for  the  release  of  the  wounded 
man. 

The  inhabitants  of  Krtaboz  (a  village  in  Bassen)  told  me  several 
horrible  stories  of  what  they  had  to  endure  lately  from  the  Koords, 
who  drove  off  their  twenty-three  oxen,  twenty-eight  horses,  sixty 
cows,  and  twenty  sheep.  One  which  illustrates  the  method  of 
Turkish  justice  will  suffice  to  give  the  reader  an  inkling  of  their 
nature.  "Last  May  (1894)  twelve  mounted  Hamidiehs  attacked  our 
village  and  seized  our  priest,  Der  David.  They  promised  to  release 
him  if  he  paid  them  six  pounds.  He  borrowed  the  sum,  gave  it  to 
his  captors,  and  was  set  free.  The  troops  fired  upon  the  other  vil- 
lagers, who  ran  away.  Next  day  Guil  Beg  went  to  Hassankaleh  to 
complain  to  the  authorities.  They  abused  him,  called  him  a  liar,  and 
ordered  him  to  be  imprisoned.  After  having  spent  forty  days  in  the 
horrible  hole  called  a  prison,  he  was  permitted  to  pay  a  bribe  of  seven 
pounds  and  go  home." 

There  is  no  redress  whatever  for  a  Christian  who  has  suffered  in 
property,  limb,  or  life  at  the  hands  of  Mohammedans;  not  because 
the  law  officers  are  careless  or  lethargic,  but-  because  they  are 
specially  retained  on  the  other  side.  And  the  proof  of  this,  if  any 
proof  were  needed,  is  that  the  complainants  themselves  are  speedily 
punished  for  lodging  an  information  against  their  persecutors.  But 
whenever  a  Koord  or  a  Turk  is  the  victim  of  a  "  crime,"  or  even  an 
accident,  the  energy  of  the  Government  officials  knows  no  bounds. 
In  the  spring  of  last  year,  when  the  snows  were  thawing  and  the 


28 

waters  rose  high  in  the  rivers  and  streams,  some  needy  Koords  were 
moving  along  the  bank  of  the  river,  hard  by  Hussnaker.  They  were 
wretched  beggars,  asking  alms,  and  battling  with  fate.  In  an 
attempt  to  ford  the  river  they  were  carried  away  and  drowned. 
Forthwith  the  villagers  were  accused  of  having  murdered  them,  and 
four  Armenian  notables  were  arrested  and  imprisoned  in  Hassankaleh 
on  this  trumpery  charge,  the  real  object  of  which  was  not  disguised. 
After  the  lapse  of  seven  or  eight  months  the  villagers  were  told  that 
on  payment  of  a  bribe  of  ^75  the  prisoners  would  be  discharged. 
The  money  had  to  be  scraped  together  and  paid  to  the  authorities, 
whereupon  the  men  were  released.  1  saw  two  of  them,  Atam  and 
Dono,  myself. 

The  taxes  levied  upon  Armenians  are  exorbitant;  the  bribes  that 
invariably  accompany  them,  and  are  imposed  by  the  Zaptiehs,  may 
swell  to  any  proportions,  and  resume  the  most  repugnant  forms, 
while  the  methods  employed  to  collect  both  constitute  by  themselves 
a  sufficient  justification  for  the  sweeping  away  of  Ottoman  rule  in 
Armenia. 

To  give  a  fair  instance  of  the  different  rates  of  taxation  for 
Christians  and  Mohammedans  in  towns  it  will  suffice  to  point  out  that 
in  Erzeroum,  where  there  are  8.000  Mohammedan  houses,  the  Moslems 
pay  only  395,000  piastres,  whereas  the  Christians,  whose  houses  num- 
ber but  2,000,  pay  430,000  piastres. 

In  the  country  districts  everything,  without  exception,  is  highly 
taxed  by  the  Government,  and  the  heaviest  burden  of  this  legal  exac- 
tion is  light  when  compared  with  the  extortion  practiced  by  its 
agents,  the  Zaptiehs.  A  family,  for  instance,  is  supposed  to  con- 
tribute, say,  ^5,  and  fulfils  its  obligation.  The  Zaptiehs,  however, 
ask  for  ^3  or  ^4  more  for  themselves,  and  are  met  with  a  rash  re- 
fusal Negotiations,  interlarded  with  violent  and  abusive  language, 
ensue,  and  ;£i  is  accepted.  But  the  Zaptiehs'  blood  is  up.  In  a 
week  they  return  and  demand  the  same  taxes  over  again.  The 
Armenians  wax  angry,  protest  and  present  their  receipt;  whereat  the 
Zaptiehs  laughingly  explain  that  the  document  in  question  is  no  receipt 
but  a  few  verses  from  a  Turkish  book.  The  villagers  plead  poverty  and 
implore  mercy.  Greed,  not  compassion,  moves  the  Zaptiehs  to  com- 
promise the  matter  for  ^3  more,  but  the  money  is  not  forthcoming. 
Then  they  demand  the  surrender  of  the  young  women  and  girls  of  the 
family  to  glut  their  brutal  appetites,  and  refusal  is  punished  with  a 
series  of  tortures  over  which  decency  and  humanity. throw  a  veil  of 
silence  Rape,  and  every  kind  of  brutal  outrage  conceivable  to  the 
diseased  mind  of  Oriental  profligates,  and  incredible  to  the  average 
European  intelligence,  varied  perhaps  with  murder  or  arson,  wind  up 
the  incident. 

I  have  seen  and  spoken  with  victims  of  these  representatives  of 
the  Sublime  Porte  ;  I  have  inspected  their  wounds,  questioned  their 


29 

families,  interrogated  their  priests,  their  persecutors,  and  their  gaolers 
(some  of  them  being  incarcerated  for  complaining),  and  I  unhesitat- 
ingly affirm,  not  merely  that  these  horrors  are  real  facts,  but  that  they 
are  frequent  occurrences.  The  following  is  the  translation  of  an 
authentic  document  in  my  possession,  signed  and  sealed  by  the  inhabi- 
tants of  Melikan  (Kaza  of  Keghi),  addressed  as  recently  as  March 
26th  of  the  present  year  to  his  Beatitude,  the  learned  and  saintly 
Metropolitan  Archbishop  of  Erzeroum,  a  dignitary  who  enjoys  the 
respect  and  esteem  of  friends  and  foes: 

"  For  a  long  time  past  the  tour  or  five  Zaptiehs  charged  with  the 
collection  of  the  imperial  taxes  have  chosen  our  village  for  their 
headquarters,  and  compel  the  inhabitants  of  the  outlying  country  to 
come  hither  to  pay  their  contributions  They  eat,  drink,  and  feed 
their  horses  at  our  expense,  undisguisedly  showing  that  they  are  re- 
solved to  reduce  us  to  beggary. 

"Lately  seven  other  Zaptiehs,  who  had  not  even  the  pretext  of 
collecting  the  taxes,  entered  our  village,  beat  the  inhabitants,  insulted 
the  Christian  religion,  and  dishonoured  our  wives  and  daughters 
after  which  they  seized  three  men  who  protested — Boghos,  Mardig, 
and  Krikor — bound  them  with  a  twofold  chain,  and  hung  them  up  by 
the  feet  from  the  rafters.  They  left  them  in  this  position  until  the 
blood  began  to  flow  from  their  nostrils.  These  poor  men  fell  ill  in 
consequence.  The  Zaptiehs,  however,  declared  publicly  that  they 
had  treated  the  people  thus  merely  in  obedience  to  the  special  orders 
of  the  chief  of  the  police. 

"  We  therefore  appeal  to  imperial  justice  to  rescue  us  from  this  un- 
bearable position.  The  inhabitants  of  the  village  of  Melikan,  Kaza 
of  Keghi.  (Signed)  KATSHERE. 

"  26th  March,  1895." 

Here  is  another  petition  from  another  village  of  the  same  Kaza, 
likewise  addressed  to  the  Metropolitan  Archbishop  of  Erzeroum: 

"  A  number  of  Zaptiehs,  on  pretext  of  gathering  the  taxes,  rode 
into  our  village  at  five  o'clock  Turkish  (about  10  o'clock  A.  M.)  broke 
open  the  doors  of  our  dwellings,  entered  the  inner  apartments, 
clutched  our  wives  and  children,  who  were  in  a  state  of  semi-nudity, 
and  cast  them  into  the  road  along  with  the  couches  on  which  they 
lay.  Then  they  beat  and  maltreated  them  most  cruelly.  Finally 
they  selected  over  thirty  of  our  women,  shut  them  up  in  a  barn,  and 
wrought  their  criminal  will  upon  them.  Before  leaving  they  took  all 
the  food  and  fodder  we  possessed,  as  is  their  invariable  custom.  We 
beg  to  draw  your  attention  to  these  facts,  and  to  implore  the 
imperial  clemency.  The  inhabitants  of  the  village  of  Arek,  Kaza  of 
Keghi. 

(Signed)         MOORADIAN,  RESSIAN,  BERGHOYAN,  MELKONIAN. 
"  26th  March,  1895." 


3° 

I  was  present  myself  in  the  house  of  an  Armenian  peasant,  of  the 
village  of  Kipri  Kieu,  when  a  number  of  mounted  Zaptiehs  arrived, 
woke  up  the  inmates,  and  insolently  demanded  food  for  themselves, 
barley  for  their  horses,  and  couches  for  the  night.  What  more  they 
would  have  called  for  I  am  not  prepared  to  say,  but  I  extricated  my 
host  from  the  difficulty  by  refusing  them  admittance  on  the  ground 
that  I  had  hired  the  house  for  the  night.  No  wonder  that  the 
peasants  of  the  District  of  Khnouss  complain,  in  the  petition  which 
they  asked  me  to  lay  before  "  the  noble  and  humane  people  of  Eng- 
land," "  That  the  once  prosperous  and  fertile  country  is  now  deserted, 
waste  and  desolate." 

These,  then,  are  the  horrors  which  are  connoted  by  the  phrase  so 
flippantly  uttered  by  certain  enlightened  English  people:  "  These 
Armenians  and  Koords  are  eternally  quarrelling,  and  a  little  blood- 
shed more  or  less  would  not  seem  seriously  to  affect  the  general 
average."  It  is  true  enough  in  the  sense  in  which  it  is  correct  to  say 
that  sheep  and  wolves  are  perpetually  at  war  with  each  other,  and  in 
this  sense  only.  The  Armenians  are  naturally  peaceful  in  all  places: 
passionately  devoted  to  agriculture  in  the  country,  and  wholly  ab- 
sorbed by  mercantile  pursuits  in  the  towns.  Lest  their  inborn  aver- 
sion to  bloodshed,  however,  should  be  overcome  by  the  impulse  of 
duty,  the  instinct  of  self-defense,  or  deep-rooted  affection  for  those 
near  and  dear  to  them,  they  are  forbidden  to  possess  arms,  and  the 
tortures  that  are  inflicted  on  the  few  who  disregard  this  law,  would 
bring  a  blush  to  the  cheek  of  a  countryman  of  Confucius.*  They 
must  rely  for  protection  exclusively  upon  the  Turkish  soldiers  and 
the  Turkish  law. 

The  nature  of  the  protection  afforded  by  the  Imperial  troops 
was  sufficiently  clearly  revealed  last  August  and  September  on  the 
slopes  of  Frfrkar  and  the  heights  of  Andok,  in  the  hamlets  of  Dai- 
vorik  and  in  the  valley  of  Ghellyegoozan.  The  villages  of  Odandjor, 
Hamzasheikh,  Kakarloob  Kharagyul,  flourishing  and  prosperous  in 
1890-1891,  did  not  contain  one  sheep,  one  buffalo,  one  horse  in  1894. 
The  stables  were  all  tenantless,  the  stalls  all  empty,  and  the  ashes  o, 
seventy  enormous  stacks  of  corn  told  the  rest  of  the  tale.  This  was 
the  congenial  work  of  the  Koords,  whose  friends,  the  Turkish  troops, 
were  quartered,  to  the  number  of  200  horse  soldiers  in  Yondjalee,  half 
an  hour  distant  from  Odandjor,  200  in  Kop,  and  100  in  Shekagoob. 
The  protection  which  they  afforded  was  given  to  the  Koords,  and  the 
1  reward  they  received  was  a  share  in  the  spoils. 

The  protection  given   by  Turkish   law  is  of   a  like  nature,   only 

*Khozro,  a  well-to-do  inhabitant  of  Prkhooss,  near  Lake  Nazig  (District  of 
Akhlat),  was  a  lucky  exception.  True,  he  did  not  exactly  possess  a  gun,  but  he  was 
suspected  of  having  one.  His  house  was  searched,  the  floor  dug  up,  the  roof  examined, 
in  vain.  Then  he  was  imprisoned  for  a  month  and  allowed  to  purchase  his  liberty  by 
paying  £70  in  gold  and  signing  a  paper  to  the  effect  that- he  never  had  firearms  of  any 
kind. 


31 

incomparably  more  disastrous  to  those  Armenians  -who  venture  to 
have  recourse  to  it.  Two  or  three  instances,  vouched  for  by  a  host 
of  witnesses,  verified  by  foreign  consuls,  a-nd  authenticated  by  official 
documents,  will  throw  light  enough  for  all  practical  purposes  upon 
the  strange  forms  assumed  by  Turkish  justice  in  the  provinces  of 
Armenia. 

Kevork  Vartanian,  of  the  village  of  Mankassar  (Sandjak  of 
Alashkerd),  testified,  among  other  things,  as  follows:  "In  1892,  a 
Koord,  Andon  by  name,  son  of  Kerevash  (of  the  tribe  of  Tshalal), 
came  with  his  comrades  to  my  house  and  took  five  pounds  in  gold  be- 
longing to  me,  which  I  had  saved  up  to  buy  seed  corn  with.  I  lodged 
a  complaint  against  him,  but  the  authorities  dismissed  me  with 
contempt.  Andon,  hearing  of  my  attempt  to  have  him  punished,  came 
one  night  with  twelve  men,  stood  on  our  roof,  and  looking  down 
through  the  aperture  fired.  My  daughter-in-law,  Yezeko,  struck  by  a 
bullet,  fell  dead.  Her  two  boys  and  my  child  Missak  (two  years  old) 
likewise  lost  their  lives  then  and  there.  Then  the  Koords  entered 
the  apartments  and  took  my  furniture,  clothing,  four  oxen  and  four 
cows.*  I  hastened  to  the  village  of  Karakilisse  and  complained  to 
Rahim  Pasha.  Having  heard  my  story,  he  said:  '  The  Hamadieh 
Koords  are  the  Sultan's  warriors.  To  do  thus  is  their  right.  You 
Armenians  are  liars/  And  we  were  imprisoned.  We  did  not  obtain 
our  release  until  we  had  paid  two  pounds  in  gold. 

"  The  following  winter  two  hundred  soldiers  entered  our  village 
under  the  leadership  of  Rahim  Pasha  himself.  He  at  once  told  us 
that  it  was  illegal  to  complain  of  the  doings  of  the  Koords.  Then  he 
quartered  himself  and  his  troops  upon  us  and  demanded  daily  eight 
sheep,  ten  measures  of  barley,  besides  eggs,  poultry,  and  butter.  Forty 
days  running  our  village  supplied  these  articles  of  food  gratis,  receiv- 
ing curses  and  blows  for  our  pains.  Rahim  Pasha,  angry  with  his 
host,  Pare,  for  grumbling,  had  a  copper  vessel  hung  over  the  fire,  and, 
when  heated,  ordered  it  to  be  placed  on  Paie's  head.  Then  he  had 
him  stripped  naked  and  little  bits  of  flesh  nipped  out  of  his  quivering 
arms  with  pincers. 

"These  ruffians  had  scarcely  quitted  our  village  when  Aipe"  Pasha 
with  sixty  horsemen  took  their  places.  Seeing  that  there  were  no 
more  sheep  to  be  had  in  the  village,  they  slaughtered  and  ate  our 
cows  and  oxen,  and  having  inflicted  much  suffering  upon  us  during 
six  days,  they  too  left.  To  whom  could  we  address  our  complaints, 
seeing  that  the  legally  constituted  authorities  themselves  perpetrated 
these  things  ?  Nothing  was  left  for  us  but  to  quit  the  country,  which 
we  did?  " 

In  the  month  of   June,  1890,  the  village  of   Alidjikrek  was  the 


*Cows,  horses,  &c.,  are  frequently  lodged  in  the  apartment  in  which  the  inmates 
live  and  sleep.  I  have  passed  many  a  restless  night  in  a  spacious  room  along  with 
horses,  buffaloes,  oxen,  sheep  and  goats. 


32 

scene  of  a  double  crime.  The  Armenian  shepherds  who  were  tending 
the  flocks  of  the  villagers  rushed  in  excitedly  asking  for  help.  "The 
Koords  of  Ibil  Ogloo  Ibrahim  came  up  with  their  sheep  and  drove  us 
out  of  the  village  pastures."  It  was  one  of  the  commonplaces  of 
village  life  in  Turkish  Armenia.  Four  young  men  set  out  to  reason 
with  the  Moslems  and  assert  the  rights  of  property;  but  scarcely  had 
they  reached  the  ground,  when  the  Koords  opened  fire  and  killed  one 
of  the  youths,  named  Hossep,  on  the  spot.  Another  fell  mortally 
wounded  ;  his  name,  Haroothioon.  Their  comrades  fled  in  horror  to 
the  village;  the  people,  dismayed,  abandoned  their  work;  the  parish 
priest  and  several  of  the  principal  inhabitants  ran  to  the  scene  of  the 
murder,  others  rode  off  to  inform  the  gendarmes. 

.  The  Zaptiehs  (gendarmes),  accompanied  by  an  official,  were  soon 
on  the  spot.  They  found  Hossep  dead,  and  the  parish  priest,  Der 
Ohannes,  administering  the  last  consolations  of  religion  to  the  dying 
Haroothioon.  They  ordered  the  prayers  to  cease  and  menacingly 
asked,  "  Where  are  the  Koordish  murderers?"  "  They  have  fled," 
was  the  reply.  "Indeed;  probably  you,  dogs,  have  killed  them,  and 
buried  them  out  of  sight.  You  are  all  my  prisoners."  (Turning  to 
the  priest.)  "You,  too,  come!  "  And  they  were  all  taken  to  Hassan- 
kaleh  and  thrown  into  the  loathsome  dungeon  there.  After  a  time 
they  were  transferred  to  the  prison  of  Erzeroum. 

The  parish  priest,  Der  Ohannes,  was  a  well  to  do  man.  The 
process  of  systematic  impoverishment  was  then  only  beginning.  His 
brother,  Garabed,  and  their  ten  comrades  in  misfortune,  were  like- 
wise men  of  substance,  and  it  seemed  desirable  to  the  officials  that 
their  property  should  change  hands.  They  were  left,  therefore,  to 
soak  in  the  fetid  vapours  of  a  reeking  Eastern  prison-house.  The 
time  dragged  slowly  on,  day  by  day,  week  by  week,  and  month  by 
month,  till  they  seemed  to  have  been  completely  forgotten.  Their 
families  were  in  an  endless  agony  of  fear,  their  affairs  were  utterly 
neglected,  their  health  was  wholly  undermined.  In  this  pandemonium 
they  passed  a  year — the  most  horrible  period  of  their  li.ves. 

Then  they  humbly  besought  their  persecutors  to  help  them  to 
their  liberty  and  to  name  the  price.  The  terms  were  agreed  to,  and 
they  were  advised  to  send  Koords  to  hunt  up  traces  of  the  Koordish 
murderers  whom  they  were  accused  of  having  murdered  in  turn. 
"If  they  be  found  you  will  be  set  free."  The  cost  of  this  advice  and 
of  the  ways  and  means  of  carrying  it  out  amounted  to  about 
^"400,  which  the  prisoners  were  compelled  to  borrow  at  40  per  cent, 
interest. 

The  search  was  of  course  successful,  Koordish  and  Turkish 
assassins,  when  their  victims  are  Christians,  having  no  need  to  hide 
their  persons,  no  motive  to  hang  their  heads.  What  they  do  is  well 
done  These  particular  heroes  were  found  enrolled  in  a  battalion  of 
his  Majesty's  favourite  cavalry — the  Hamidieh  of  Alashkerd.  They 


33 

confessed  and  did  not  deny;  a  cloud  of  witnesses — Turks  and  Koords 
of  course,  Christians  being  disqualified — testified  in  court  in  favour 
of  the  twelve  Armenian  prisoners,  who  were  then  set  at  liberty,  with 
ruined  fortunes  and  broken  health.  The  sentence  of  the  court  set 
forth  that  the  Armenians,  charged  with  the  crime  of  having  killed 
certain  Koords  who  had  assassinated  two  Armenian  villagers,  had 
proved  their  innocence,  the  Koords  in  question  having  been  discovered 
living  and  well,  serving  the  Commander  of  the  Faithful  in  the  Hami- 
dieh  Corps. 

The  Koordish  murderers,  about  whose  precious  lives  so  much 
fuss  was  made,  were  left  in  peace,  and  they  still  continue  to  serve  his 
Majesty  the  Sultan  with  the  same  zeal  and  contempt  of  consequences 
as  before. 

A  dog  will  bark  if  another  dog  be  shot  in  its  presence.  These 
Armenians  did  not  even  grumble;  they  simply  called  in  the  represent- 
atives of  Imperial  law  and  justice,  who  proceeded  to  deal  with  them- 
as  with  murderers.  But  Christians  in  Armenia  dare  not  aspire  to  be 
treated  with  the  consideration  shown  to  obedient  dogs  by  good- 
natured  masters. 

The  stories  told  of  these  Koordish  Hamidieh  officers  in  general, 
and  of  one  of  them,  named  Mostigo,  in  particular,  seemed  so  wildly 
improbable,  that  I  was  at  great  pains  to  verify  them.  Learning  that 
this  particular  Fra  Diavolo  had  been  arrested  and  was  carefully 
guarded  as  a  dangerous  criminal  in  the  prison  of  Erzeroum,  where 
he  would  probably  be  hanged,  I  determined  to  obtain,  if  possible,  an 
interview  with  him,  and  learn  the  truth  from  his  own  lips.  My  first 
attempt  ended  in  failure;  Mostigo  being  a  desperate  murderer,  who 
had  once  before  escaped  from  jail,  was  subjected  to  special  restric- 
tions, and  if  I  had  carried  out  my  original  plan  of  visiting  him  in 
disguise,  the  probability  is  that  I  should  not  have  returned  alive. 
After  about  three  weeks'  tedious  and  roundabout  negotiations,  I  suc- 
ceeded in  gaining  the  gaoler's  ear,  having  first  replenished  his  purse. 
I  next  won  over  the  brigand  himself,  and  the  upshot  of  my  endeavors- 
was  an  arrangement  tnat  Mostigo  was  to  be  allowed  to  leave  the 
prison  secretly,  and  at  night,  to  spend  six  hours  in  my  room,  and  then 
to  be  re-conducted  to  his  dungeon. 

When  the  appointed  day  arrived  the  gaoler  repudiated  his  part  of 
the  contract,  on  the  ground  that  Mostigo,  aware  tnat  his  life  was  for- 
feited, would  probably  give  the  prison  a  wide  berth  if  allowed  to  leave 
its  precincts.  After  some  further  negotiations,  however,  I  agreed  to 
give  two  hostages  for  his  return,  one  of  them  a  brother  Koord,  whose 
life  the  brigand's  notions  of  honour  would  not  allow  him  to  sacrifice 
for  the  chance  of  saving  his  own.  At  last  he  came  to  me  one  evening, 
walking  over  the  roofs,  lest  the  police  permanently  stationed  at  my 
door  should  espy  him.  I  kept  him  all  night,  showed  him  to  two  of 
the  most  respectable  Europeans  in  Erzeroum,  and,  lest  any  doubt 


34 

should  be  thrown  on  my  story,  had   myself  photographed  with  him 
next  morning. 

The  tale  unfolded  by  that  Koordish  noble  constitutes  a  most 
admirable  commentary  upon  Turkish  regime  in  Armenia.  This  is 
not  the  place  to  give  it  in  full.  One  or  two  short  extracts  must 
suffice. 

Q.     "  Now,  Mostigo,  1  desire  to  hear  from  your  own  lips  and  to 

write  down  some  of   your  wonderful  deeds.     I   want  to  make  them 

known  to  the  'hat-wearers.'  "  * 

A.     "  Even  so.     Announce  them  to  the  Twelve  Powers."  f 
There  were  evidently  no  misgivings  about  moral  consequences; 

no  fears  of  judicial  punishment.     And  yet  retribution  was  at  hand; 

Mostigo  was  said  to  be  doomed  to  death.     Desirous  of  clearing  up 

this  point,  I  went  on: 

Q.  "  I  am  sorry  to  find  that  you  are  living  in  prison.  Have  you 
been  long  there?" 

A.     "  I,  too,  am  sorry.     Five  moths,  but  it  seems  an  age." 

Q.     "These  Armenians  are  to  blame,  I  suppose  ?" 

A.     "  Yes." 

Q.  "  You  wiped  out  too  many  of  them,  carried  off  their  women, 
burned  their  villages,  and  made  it  generally  hot  for  them,  I  am  told." 

A.  (scornfully).  "  That  has  nothing  to  do  with  my  imprison- 
ment. I  shall  not  be  punished  for  plundering  Armenians.  We  all 
do  that.  I  seldom  killed,  except  when  they  resisted.  But  the 
Armenians  betrayed  me  and  I  was  caught.  That's  what  I  mean. 
But  if  I  be  hanged  it  will  be  for  attacking  and  robbing  the  Turkish 
post  and  violating  the  wife  of  a  Turkish  Colonel  who  is  now  here  in 
Erzeroum.  But  not  for  Armenians!  Who  are  they  that  I  should 
suffer  for  them  ? " 

After  he  had  narrated  several  adventures  of  his,  in  the  course  of 
which  he  dishonored  Christian  woman,  killed  Armenian  villagers, 
robbed  the  post  and  escaped  from  prison,  he  went  on  to  say: 

"  We  did  great  deeds  after  that  :  deeds  that  would  astonish  the 
Twelve  Powers  to  hear  told.     We  attacked  villages,  killed  people  who 
would  have  killed  us,  gutted  houses,  taking  money,  carpets,  sheep  and 
women,  and  robbed  travellers.  .  .  .   Daring  and  great  were  our  deeds 
and  the  mouths  of  men  were  full  of  them." 

Having  heard  the  story  of  many  of  these  "  great  deed,"  in  some 
of  which  fifty  persons  met  their  death,  I  asked: 

Q.  "  Do  the  Armenians  ever  offer  you  resistance  when  you  take 
their  cattle  and  their  women?  " 


*  The   Koords  calll  all   Europeans   hat-wearers,  and  generally  regard  them  with 
espect  and  awe. 

f  /.  e.,  to  the  whole  universe. 


35 

A.  "  Not  often.  They  cannot.  They  have  no  arms,  and  they 
know  that  even  if  they  could  kill  a  few  of  us  it  would  do  them  no 
good,  for  other  Koords  would  come  and  take  vengeance;  but  when  we 
kill  them  no  one's  eyes  grow  large  with  rage.  The  Turks  hate  them, 
and  we  do  not.  We  only  want  money  and  spoil,  and  some  Koords 
also  want  their  lands,  but  the  Turks  want  their  lives.  A  few  months 
ago  I  attacked  the  Armenian  village  of  Kara  Kipriu  and  drove  off  all 
the  sheep  in  the  place.  I  did  not  leave  one  behind.  The  villagers, 
in  despair,  did  follow  us  that  time  and  fire  some  shots  at  us,  but  it 
was  nothing  to  speak  of.  We  drove  the  sheep  towards  Erzeroum  to 
sell  them  there.  But  on  the  way  we  had  a  fight  near  the  Armenian 
village  of  Sheme.  The  peasants  knew  we  had  lifted  the  sheep  from 
their  own  people,  and  they  attacked  us.  We  were  only  five  Koords 
and  they  were  many — the  whole  village  was  up  against  us.  Two  of 
my  men — rayahs  *  only — were  killed.  We  killed  fifteen  Armenians. 
They  succeeded  in  capturing  forty  of  the  sheep.  The  remainder  we 
held  and  sold  in  Erzeroum." 

Q.     "  Did  you  kill  many  Armenians  generally?" 

A.  "  Yes.  We  did  not  wish  to  do  so.  We  only  want  booty,  not 
lives.  Lives  are  of  no  use  to  us.  But  we  had  to  drive  bullets 
through  people  at  times  to  keep  them  quiet ;  that  is,  if  they 
resisted." 

Q.     "  Did  you  often  use  your  daggers  ?" 

A.  "  No;  generally  our  rifles.  We  must  live.  In  autumn  we 
manage  to  get  as  much  corn  as  we  need  for  the  winter,  and  money 
besides.  We  have  cattle,  but  we  take  no  care  of  it.  We  give  it  to  the 
Armenians  to  look  after  and  feed." 

Q.     "But  if  they  refuse?" 

A.  "  Well,  we  burn  their  hay,  their  corn,  their  houses,  and  we 
drive  off  their  sheep,  so  they  do  not  refuse.  We  take  back  our  cattle 
in  spring,  and  the  Armenians  must  return  the  same  number  that  they 
received." 

Q      "But  if  the  cattle  disease  should  carry  them  off?" 

A.  "  That  is  the  Armenians'  affair.  They  must  return  us  what 
we  gave  them,  or  an  equal  number.  And  they  know  it.  We  cannot 
bear  the  loss.  Why  should  not  they  ?  Nearly  all  our  sheep  come 
from  them." 

After  having  listened  to  scores  of  stories  of  his  expeditions, 
murders,  rapes,  &c.,  &c.,  I  again  asked:  "  Can  you  tell  me  some  more 
of  your  daring  deeds,  Mostigo,  for  the  ears  of  the  Twelve  Powers  ? " 
to  which  I  received  this  characteristic  reply: 


*  The  Koords  are  divided  into  Torens  or  nobles,  who  lead  in  war  time,  and 
possess  and  enjoy  in  peace;  and  Rayahs,  who  sacrifice  their  lives  for  their  lords  in  all 
raids  and  feuds,  and  are  wholly  dependent  on  them  at  all  times.  A  rayah's  life  may  be 
taken  by  a  toren  with  almost  the  same  impunity  as  a  Christian's. 


36 

'' Once  the  wolf  was  asked:  Tell  us  something  about  the  sheep 
you  devoured?  and  he  said:  I  ate  thousands  of  sheep,  which  of 
them  are  you  talking  about  ?  Even  so  it  is  with  my  deeds.  If  I  spoke 
and  you  wrote  for  two  days,  much  would  still  remain  untold." 

This  brigand  is  a  Koord,  and  the  name  of  the  Koords  is  legion. 
Ex  uno  disce  omnes.  And  yet  the  Koords  have  shown  themselves  to 
be  the  most  humane  of  all  the  persecutors  of  the  Armenians.  Need- 
ing money,  this  man  robbed;  desirous  of  pleasure  he  dishonored 
women  and  girls;  defending  his  booty,  he  killed  men  and  women,  and 
during  it  all  he  felt  absolutely  certain  of  impunity,  so  long  as  his  vic- 
tims were  Armenians.  Is  there  no  law  then  ?  one  is  tempted  to 
ask.  There  is,  and  a  very  good  law  for  that  corner  of  the  globe 
were  it  only  administered ;  for  the  moment  he  robbed  the  Imperial 
post  and  dishonored  a  Turkish  woman,  he  was  found  worthy  of 
death. 

Laws,  reforms  and  constitutions  therefore,  were  they  drawn  up 
by  the  wisest  and  most  experienced  legislators  and  statesmen  of  the 
world,  will  not  be  worth  the  paper  they  are  written  on  so  long  as  the 
Turks  are  allowed  to  administer  them  without  control.  The  proof 
is  contained  in  the  life  and  acts  of  Turkish  officials  any  time  during 
the  past  fifty  years. 

Here,  for  example,  is  an  honorable  record  of  an  energetic  admin- 
istrator, his  Excellency  Hussein  Pasha,  Brigadier-General  of  his 
Majesty  the  Sultan,  which  will  bear  the  closest  scrutiny.  Command- 
ing a  gang  of  Koordish  brigands,  which  could  be  increased  to  about 
2,000  men,  he  continually  harassed  the  peaceful  inhabitants  ot  the 
province,  plundering,  torturing,  violating,  killing,  till  his  name  alone 
sent  a  thrill  of  terror  to  the  hearts  of  all.  The  Armenians  of  Patnotz 
suffered  so  much  from  his  depredations  that  they  all  quitted  their 
village  en  masse  and  migrated  to  Karakilisse,  where  the  Kaimakam 
resides;  whereupon  Hussein  surrounded  the  house  of  the  Bishop  of 
Karakalisse  with  a  large  force  and  compelled  him  to  send  the  people 
back.  Even  the  Mohammedans  felt  so  shocked  at  his  doings, 
that  tne  Mussulman  priest  of  Patnotz,  Sheikh  Nari,  complained  of 
him  to  the  Vali  (Governor-General)  of  Erzeroum.  Hussein  then 
sent  his  men,  who  murdered  Sheikh  Nari  and  frightened  his 
daughter-in-law  to  death.  In  one  expedition  he  carried  off  2,600 
sheep,  many  horses,  kine,  &c.,  took  ^500,  burnt  nine  villages, 
killed  ten  men,  and  cut  off  the  right  hands,  noses  and  ears  of  eleven 
others.  Early  in  the  year  1890  he  raped  five  Christian  girls  of 
Patnotz,  and  in  September  and  October  of  the  same  year  he 
levied  a  contribution  of  ^300  on  the  people  of  the  same,  district. 
For  none  of  these  crimes  was  he  ever  tried.  In  December,  1890, 
he  sent  his  brother  to  raise  more  money,  which  was  done  by 
raiding  twenty-one  villages  of  the  Aintab  District,  the  net  result 
being  ^350  and  200  batmans  of  butter  (=  3,000  Ibs.).  Hatsho,  an 


37 

Armenian  of  Patnotz,  who  could  not,  or  would  not,  contribute  a 
certain  sum  to  his  coffer,  had  his  house  raided  in  his  absence,  and  his 
wife  and  two  children  killed.  All  this  time  the  gallant  Hussein  occu- 
pied the  post  and  "discharged  the  duties"  of  a  Mudir  or  Deputy  Sub- 
Governor.  One  day  he  drove  off  1,000  sheep  and  7  yoke  of  buffaloes 
from  Patnotz  and  Kizilkoh  and  sold  them  in  Erzeroum  to  a  merchant, 
after  which  he  confiscated  a  fine  horse  belonging  to  Manook,  an 
Armenian  of  Kizilkoh,  and  sent  it  as  i  present  to  the  son  of  an  Erze- 
roum judge.  One  night  towards  the  end  of  February,  1891,  Hussein, 
his  nephew  Rassoul,  and  others,  entered  the  house  of  an  Armenian, 
Kaspar,  for  the  purpose  of  carrying  off  Kaspar's  handsome  daughter- 
in-law.  The  inmates,  however,  shouted  for  help,  whereupon  Hussein, 
raising  his  revolver,  shot  the  young  woman  dead.  A  petition  was 
presented  asking  that  he  be  punished,  but  the  Vali  of  Erzeroum 
declined  to  receive  it,  and  Hussein  was  summoned  to  Constantinople, 
welcomed  with  cordiality,  decorated  by  his  Majesty,  raised  to  the 
rank  of  Pasha,  and  appointed  Brigadier-General.  When  the  troops 
went  to  Moush  and  Sassoun  last  year,  Hussein  was  one  of  the  heroes, 
and  when  "order"  was  restored  there,  he  returned  to  Patnotz  with 
several  young  Sassounian  girls  whom  he  abducted,  and  he  now  lives 
happy  and  respected.  No  doubt  there  are  missions  which  might  be 
entrusted  to  a  gentleman  like  Brigadier-General  Hussein  Pasha  and 
men  of  his  type.  But  is  the  government  of  a  Christian  people  one  of 
them  ?  And  if  we  assume  that  the  then  Vali  of  Erzeroum  and  the 
other  administrators  of  the  country  were  men  of  a  much  higher  moral 
standard  than  he,  of  what  avail  were  their  noble  character  and  admir- 
able intentions,  seeing  that  they  allowed  him  to  plunder,  ravish,  burn 
and  kill  unchecked?  And  is  it  reasonable  to  blame  Hussein  Pasha 
for  deeds,  after  the  perpetration  of  which,  he  was  honored  and  pro- 
moted by  the  guardian  of  all  law  and  order,  the  Commander  of  the 
Faithful? 

Not  all  of  the  officials  have  the  same  tastes  or  the  same  degree 
of  courage  as  his  Excellency  Hussein  Pasha.  There  are  others — 
many  others  no  doubt — who,  whatever  their  private  proclivities  may 
be,  feel  moved  by  their  official  sense  of  the  fitness  of  things  to  cast 
about  for  a  pretext  for  acts  for  which  there  could  be  no  conceivable 
justification.  And  the  follies  which  they  commit  in  pursuit  of  this 
shadow  would  seem  incredible  were  they  not  notorious.  The  follow- 
ing case  has  been  inquired  into  and  verified  by  the  foreign  represen- 
tatives in  Turkey.  In  the  spring  of  1893  Hassib  Pasha,  the  Governor 
of  Moush,  feeling  the  need  of  some  proofs  of  the  disaffection  of  the 
Armenians  of  Avzoot  and  the  neighboring  villages,  despatched  Police 
Captain  Reshid  Effendi  thither  to  search  for  arms.  Re'shid  set  out, 
made  careful  inquiries  and  diligently  searched  in  the  houses,  on  the 
roofs,  under  the  ground,  but  in  vain.  There  were  no  firearms  any- 
where. He  returned  and  reported  that  the  villagers  had  strictly 


38 

observed  the  law  forbidding  them  to  possess  weapons  of  any  kind. 
But  Hassib  Pasha  waxed  wroth.  "  How  dare  you  assert  what  I  know 
to  be  untrue?"  he  asked.  "Go  back  this  minute  and  find  the  arms. 
Don't  dare  return  without  them  !"  The  Police  Captain  again  rode  off 
to  Avzoot  and  searched  every  nook  and  corner  with  lamps,  so  to  say, 
turning  the  houses  inside  out.  But  he  found  nothing.  Then  he 
summoned  the  village  Elder  and  said:  "  I  have  been  sent  to  discover 
the  hidden  arms  here.  Tell  me  where  they  are."  "But  there  are 
none."  "  There  must  be  some."  '*  I  assure  you  you  are  mistaken." 
"Well,  now  listen.  I  have  to  find  arms  here,  whether  there  are  any 
or  none,  and  I  cannot  return  without  them.  Unless  you  deliver  me 
some,  I  shall  quarter  myself  and  my  men  upon  your  village."  This 
meant  certainly  plunder  and  probably  rape.  The  Elder  was  dismayed. 
"What  are  we  to  do?"  he  asked.  "We  have  no  arms."  "Go  and  get 
some  then,  steal  them,  buy  them,  but  get  them."  Two  or  three  per- 
sons were  accordingly  sent  to  the  nearest  Koordish  village,  where 
they  purchased  three  cart-loads  of  old  daggers,  flintlock  guns  and 
rusty  swords,  which  were  duly  handed  over  to  Reshid.  With  these 
he  returned  to  the  Governor  of  Moush  exulting.  Hassib  Pasha,  seeing 
the  collection,  rejoiced  exceedingly  and  said:  "You  see  now,  I  was 
right.  I  told  you  there  were  arms  hidden  away  there.  You  did  not 
seek  for  them  properly  at  first.  Be  more  diligent  in  future." 

Verto  Popakhian,  an  inhabitant  of  the  village  of  Khalil  Tshaush 
(Khnouss),  narrated  the  following,  the  story  of  his  troubles,  which 
throws  a  curious  sidelight  on  Turkish  justice  and  Armenian  peasant- 
life  generally: 

"A  Koord  named  Djundee  endeavored  to  carry  off  my  niece, 
Nazo,  but  we  took  her  to  Erzeroum,  and  gave  her  in  marriage  to  an 
Armenian.  We  often  have  to  give  our  young  girls  in  marriage  when 
they  are  mere  children,  eleven  to  twelve  years  old,  or  else  dress  them 
up  in  boys'  clothes,  to  preserve  them  undefiled.  Nazo's  husband  was 
the  son  of  the  parish  priest  of  Hertev.  The  Koords  vowed  venge- 
ance upon  me  for  saving  the  girl  thus.  Djundee  beat  my  brother  so 
seriously  that  he  was  ill  in  bed  for  nearly  six  months,  and  he  and  his 
men  drove  off  my  cattle,  burned  our  grain,  threshing-floor,  and  hay, 
and  ruined  us  completely.  When  the  girl  came  home  on  a  visit, 
Djundee  and  his  Koords  attacked  the  house,  and  carried  her  off.  We 
complained  to  all  the  authorities  in  the  place  and  in  Erzeroum  too. 
By  the  time  they  agreed  to  examine  the  girl  publicly,  she  had  borne  a 
child  to  the  Koord,  and  shame  prevented  her  return.  She  remained 
a  Mohammedan.  We  then  bought  a  gun  for  our  protection,  the  law 
forbidding  firearms  not  existing  yet.  In  1893  we  sold  the  gun  to  a 
Koord  named  Hadji  Daho,  but  in  1894  the  police  came  and  demanded 
it.  We  said  we  had  sold  it,  and  the  Koord  bore  out  our  assertion. 
He  even  showed  it  to  them.  But  they  arrested  my  brother  and  my- 
self, and  compelled'  us  to  give  our  two  buffaloes  in  exchange  for  two 


39 

guns,  which  they  took  away  as  incriminating  proof  of  our  guilt;  and 
then  they  sent  us  to  Erzeroum  prison.  We  were  kept  here,  suffering 
great  hardships,  for  a  long  time.  When  eight  months  had  passed 
away,  my  brother  died  of  ill-treatment.  Then  they  promised  me  my 
liberty  in  consideration  of  large  bribes,  which  reduced  me  to  absolute 
beggary.  1  had  no  choice.  I  gave  them  all  they  asked,  leaving  my- 
self and  family  of  nineteen  persons  completely  destitute.  And  then 
they  condemned  me  to  five  years'  imprisonment." 

Justice  in  all  its  aspects  is  rigorously  denied  to  the  Armenian. 
The  mere  fact  that  he  dares  to  invoke  it  as  plaintiff  or  prosecutor 
against  a  Koord  or  a  Turk  is  always  sufficient  to  metamorphose  him 
into  a  defendant  or  a  criminal,  generally  into  both,  whereupon  he  is 
invariably  thrown  into  prison.  In  such  cases  the  prison  is  intended 
to  be  no  more  than  the  halfway-house  between  relative  comfort  and 
absolute  misery,  the  inmates  being  destined  to  be  stripped  of  all  they 
possess  and  then  turned  adrift.  But  what  the  prison  really  is  cannot 
be  made  snfficiently  clear  in  words.  If  the  old  English  Star  Chamber, 
the  Spanish  Inquisition,  a  Chinese  opium  den,  the  ward  of  a  yellow 
fever  hospital,  and  a  nook  in  the  lowest  depths  of  Dante's  Hell  be 
conceived  as  blended  and  merged  into  one,  the  resulting  picture  will 
somewhat  resemble  a  bad  Turkish  prison.  Filth,  stench,  disease, 
deformity,  pain  in  forms  and  degrees  inconceivablejjin  Europe,  consti- 
tute the  physical  characteristics:  the  psychological  include  the  blank 
despair  that  is  final,  fiendish,  fierce  malignity,  hellish  delight  in  human 
suffering,  stoic  self-sacrifice  in  the  cultivation  of  loathsome  vices, 
stark  madness  raging  in  the  moral  nature  only — the  whole  incarnated 
in  grotesque  beings  whose  resemblance  to  man  is  a  living  blasphemy 
against  the  Deity.  In  these  noisome  dungeons,  cries  of  exquisite 
suffering  and  shouts  of  unnatural  delight  continually  commingle; 
ribald  songs  are  sung  to  the  accompaniment  of  heartrending  groans; 
meanwhile  the  breath  is  passing  away  from  bodies  which  had  long 
before  been  soulless,  and  are  unwept  save  by  the  clammy  walls 
whereon  the  vapour  of  unimagined  agonies  and  foul  disease  condenses 
into  big  drops  and  runs  down  in  driblets  to  the  reeking  ground. 
Truly  it  is  a  horrid  nightmare  quickened  into  life. 

Last  March  I  despatched  a  friend  of  mine  to  visit  the  political 
prisoners  in  the  Bitlis  penitentiary,  and  to  ask  them  to  give  me  a 
succinct  account  of  their  condition.  Four  of  them  replied  in  a  joint 
letter,  which  is  certainly  the  most  gruesome  piece  of  reading  I  have 
beheld  ever  since  I  first  perused  a  description  of  the  Black  Hole. 
Only  the  least  sensational  passages  can  be  stripped  of  the  decent 
disguise  of  a  foreign  language  and  exposed  to  the  light  of  day.  It  is 
dated  "Bitlis  Prison,  Hell,  March  28  (April  pth),  1895,"  and  begins 
thus: 

"  In  Bitlis  Prison  there  are  seven  cells,  each  one  capable  of  con- 


40 

taining  from  ten  to  twelve  persons.  The  number  they  actually 
contain  is  from  twenty  to  thirty.  There  are  no  sanitary  arrangements 
whatever.  Offal,  vermin,  and  the  filth  that  should  find  a  special  place 

elsewhere  are  heaped  together  in  the  same  cell The  water 

is  undrinkable.  Frequently  the  Armenian  prisoners  are  forced  to 
drink  'Khwlitsh'  water — /'.  <:.,  water  from  the  tank  in  which  the 
Mohammedans  perform  their  ablutions " 

Then  follows  a  brief  but  suggestive  account  of  the  treatment 
endured  by  the  writers'  comrades,  many  of  whom  died  from  the  effects. 
For  example:  "Malkhass  Aghadjanian  and  Serop  Malkhassian  of 
Avzoot  (Moush)  were  beaten  till  they  lost  consciousness.  The  for- 
mer was  branded  in  eight  places,  the  latter  in  twelve  places,  with  a 
hot  iron."  The  further  outrage  which  was  committed  upon  Serop 
must  be  nameless.  "Hagop  Seropian,  of  the  village  of  Avzoot,  was 
stripped  and  beaten  till  he  lost  consciousness;  then  a  girdle  was  thrown 
round  his  neck,  and  having  been  dragged  into  the  Zaptieh's  room,  he 
was  branded  in  sixteen  parts  of  his  body  with  red-hot  ram-rods." 
Having  described  other  sufferings  to  which  he  was  subjected,  such  as 
the  plucking  out  of  his  hair,  standing  motionless  in  one  place  without 
food  or  drink  till  nature  could  hold  out  no  longer,  the  writer  goes  on 
to  mention  outrages  for  which  the  English  tongue  has  no  name,  and 
civilized  people  no  ears.  Then  he  continues: 

"Sirko  Minassian,  Garabed  Malkhassian,  and  Isro  Ardvadza- 
doorian  of  the  same  village,  having  been  violently  beaten,  were  forced 
to  remain  in  a  standing  position  for  a  long  time,  and  then  had  the 
contents  of  certain  vessels  poured  upon  their  heads.  Korki  Mardoyan, 
of  the  village  of  Semol,  was  violently  beaten;  his  hair  was  plucked  out 
by  the  roots,  and  he  was  forced  to  stand  motionless  for  twenty-four 
hours.  Then  Moolazim  Hadji  Ali  and  the  gaoler,  Abdoolkadir,  forced 
him  to  perform  the  so-called  Sheitantopy*  which  resulted  in  his  death. 
He  was  forty-five  years  of  age.  Mekhitar  Saforian  and  Khatsho 
Baloyan  of  Kakarloo  (Boolanyk)  were  subjected  to  the  same  treat- 
ment. Mekhitar  was  bnt  fifteen  and  Khatsho  only  thirteen  years  old. 
Sogho  Sharoyan,  of  Alvarindj  (Moush),  was  conveyed  from  Moush  to 
Bitlis  prison  handcuffed.  Here  he  was  cruelly  beaten,  and  forced  to 
maintain  a  standing  position  without  food.  Whenever  he  fainted  they 
revived  him  with  douches  of  cold  water  and  stripes.  They  also 
plucked  out  his  hair,  and  burned  his  body  with  red-hot  irons.  Then 
.  .  .  (They  subjected  him  to  treatment  which  cannot  be  described.)  .  .  . 
Hambartzoon  Boyadjian,  after  his  arrest,  was  exposed  to  the  scorching 
heat  of  the  sun  for  three  days.  Then  he  was  taken  to  Semal,  where 
he  and  his  companions  were  beaten  and  shut  up  in  a  church.  They 


*Literally  "Devil's  ring."  The  hands  are  tightly  bound  together,  and  the  feet,  tied 
together  by  the  great  toes,  are  forced  up  over  the  hands.  The  remainder  of  the 
Sheitantopy  consists  of  a  severe  torture  and  a  beastly  crime. 


were  not  only  not  allowed  to  leave  the  church  to  relieve  the  wants  of 
nature,  but  were  forced  to  defile  the  baptismal  fonts  and  the  church 
altar.  .  .  .  Where  are  you,  Christian  Europe  and  America  ?" 

The  four  signatures  at  the  foot  of  this  letter  include  that  of  a 
highly  respected  and  God-fearing  ecclesiastic,  f 

I  am  personally  acquainted  with  scores  of  people  who  have  passed 
through  these  prison  mills.  The  stories  they  narrate  of  their  expe- 
rience there  are  gruesome,  and  would  be  hard  to  believe  were  they 
not  amply  confirmed  by  the  still  more  eerie  tales  told  by  their  broken 
spirits,  their  wasted  bodies,  and  the  deep  scars  and  monstrous  deform- 
ities that  will  abide  with  them  till  the  grave  or  the  vultures  devour 
them.  There  is  something  so  forbiddingly  fantastic  and  wildly 
grotesque  in  the  tortures  and  outrages  invented  by  their  gaolers  or 
their  local  governors  that  a  simple,  unvarnished  account  of  them 
sounds  like  the  ravings  of  a  diseased  devil.  But  this  is  a  subject  upon 
which  it  is  impossible  to  be  explicit. 

The  manner  in  which  men  qualify  for  the  Turkish  prison  in 
Armenia  can  be  easily  deduced  from  what  has  already  been  said. 
The  possession  of  money,  cattle,  corn,  land,  a  wife  or  daughter,  or 
enemies,  is  enough.  We  are  shocked  to  read  of  the  cruelty  of  brutal 
Koords,  who  ride  to  a  village,  attack  the  houses,  drive  off  the  sheep, 
seize  all  the  portable  property,  dishonor  the  women,  and  return  leis- 
urely home,  conscious  of  having  done  a  good  day's  work.  We  call  it 
a  disgrace  to  civilization,  and  perhaps  the  qualification  is  correct. 
But  bad  as  it  sounds,  it  is  a  mercy  compared  with  the  Turkish 
methods,  which  rely  upon  the  machinery  of  the  law  and  the  horrors 
of  the  prison.  A  man  whom  poverty,  nay,  hunger,  prevents  from  pay- 
ing imaginary  arrears  of  taxes,  who  declines  to  give  up  his  cow  or  his 
buffalo  as  backsheesh  to  the  Zaptiehs,  who  beseeches  them  to  spare 
the  honor  of  his  wife  or  his  daughter,  is  thrown  into  one  of  these 
dungeons,  which  he  never  leaves  until  he  has  been  branded  with  the 
indelible  stigma  of  the  place.  But  let  us  take  one  of  the  usual  and  by 
no  means  most  revolting  cases  of  arrest  and  imprisonment  as  an  illus- 
tration. 

A  young  man  from  the  village  of  Avzood  (Moush  District)  went 
to  Russia  in  search  of  work,  and  found  it.  He  also  married,  and  lived 
there  for  several  years.  Towards  the  close  of  1892  he  came  back  to 
his  native  village,  and  the  police,  informed  that  "  an  Armenian  who 
has  lived  in  Russia  is  returned,"  despatched  four  of  their  number 
under  the  orders  of  Isaag  Tshaush  to  Avzood.  They  arrived  two 
hours  after  sundown,  and  while  three  of  them  guarded  the  house 
where  the  young  man  was  staying,  the  leader  entered.  Shots  were 
heard  immediately  after,  and  the  young  Armenian  and  Isaag  lay  dead. 


fAs   three  of  the  writers  are  still  in  prison,  prudence  forbids   me  to   publish  their 
names,  which  are  in  the  possession  of  our  Foreign  Office. 


42 

The  authorities  in  Bitlis  then  sent  a  Colonel  of  the  Zaptiehs  to 
Avzood  to  see  "justice"  done.  And  it  was  done  very  speedily.  The 
Colonel  summoned  the  men  of  the  village — none  of  whom  were  mixed 
up  in  the  matter — and  put  them  in  prison.  Then  the  officials 
deflowered  all  the  girls  and  dishonored  all  the  young  women  in 
Avzood,  after  which  they  liberated  the  men,  except  about  twenty, 
whom  they  conveyed  to  the  gaol  of  Bitlis.  A  few  of  these  died  there, 
and  ten  others  were  soon  afterwards  dismissed.  Finally  they  decided 
to  charge  a  young  teacher,  Markar,  of  the  village  of  Vartenis  with 
the  murder  of  Isaag  Tshaush,  and  as  there  was  no  evidence  against 
him,  the  other  prisoners  were  ordered  to  testify.  Armenians  have 
the  reputation  of  being  liars,  but  they  certainly  draw  the  line  at 
swearing  away  an  innocent  man's  life;  and  they  refused  in  this  case 
to  commit  the  double  crime  of  perjury  and  murder.  Strenuous  efforts 
were  made  to  determine  them;  they  were  stripped  naked,  burned  in 
various  parts  of  the  body  with  red-hot  irons,  till  they  yelled  with  pain. 
Then  they  were  prevented  from  sleeping  for  several  nights,  and 
tortured  acutely  again,  till,  writhing  and  quivering,  they  promised  to 
swear  anything,  everything,  if  once  relieved  from  their  agony.  A 
document  declaring  that  Markar  was  in  the  village  when  Isaag 
Tshaush  arrived  there,  and  that  he  had  shot  Isaag  in  their  presence, 
was  drawn  up  in  their  names.  To  this  they  duly  affixed  their  seals. 
Meanwhile  Markar  himself  was  being  tortured  in  another  part  of  the 
prison. 

When  the  trial  came  on  and  the  incriminating  document  was 
read,  the  signatories  stripped  themselves  in  court,  exhibited  the  ugly 
marks  left  by  the  red-hot  irons,  and  called  God  to  witness  that  that 
evidence  of  theirs,  wrung  from  them  by  maddening  torture,  was  a  lie. 
Markar,  on  the  other  hand,  declared  that  he  was  not  in  Avzood  village 
at  all  on  the  night  in  question.  But  these  statements  were  unavailing; 
he  was  hanged  last  year,  and  the  "witnesses"  condemned  to  various 
terms  in  fortified  towns.  Some  of  the  women  dishonored  by  the 
Zaptiehs  died  from  the  effects  of  the  treatment  to  which  they  were 
subjected. 

The  gaolers  grow  rich  on  the  money  they  wring  from  the  inmates 
of  the  cells.  The  prison-keeper  of  Bitlis  Prison,  Abdoolkader,  a 
wretch  who,  God  having  presumably  made  him,  may  be  called  a  man, 
earns  enormous  sums  in  this  way.  He  lately  spent  ^500  on  his 
house,  and  two  or  three  Turkish  merchants  are  said  to  be  doing 
business  on  his  capital,  although  his  salary  is  only  about  50^.  a  month. 
These  sums  are  received  as  bribes,  not  for  any  positive  return  made 
to  the  prisoners,  but  for  mere  relief  from  torture  employed  solely  for 
this  purpose.  The  following  case  may  give  some  idea  of  the  nature 
of  the  relief  thus  highly  paid  for.  Some  five  months  ago  three  men 
of  the  village  of  Krtabaz  were  arrested  and  imprisoned.*  The  fact 

*  Their  names  are  Vehret,  Mardiross  Der  Kasparian,  and  Goolbeg. 


43 

that  they  were  released  without  trial  ten  weeks  later  is  evidence 
enough  of  their  innocence  of  crime.  They  were  taken  to  the  prison 
of  Hassankaleh.  The  room  in  which  they  were  confined  was  over. 
crowded.  The  term  overcrowding  does  not  connote  the  same  thing 
in  Armenia  as  in  European  prisons.  They  had  no  room  to  lie  down  at 
all.  Some  Koordish  prisoners  confined  in  the  same  dismal  den,  who 
enjoyed  special  privileges,  had  but  two  and  a  half  feet  space  to  sleep 
in.  In  one  corner  of  the  dungeon  a  hole  in  the  wall  represented  the 
prison-equivalent  of  sanitation,  and  these  three  Armenians  were  told 
that  they  must  stand  up  by  this  hole,  and  might  lean  against  the  wall 
to  sleep.  This  they  did  for  fifteen  consecutive  nights.  The  stench,  the 
filth,  the  vermin  exceed  all  conception.  After  the  lapse  of  fifteen 
days,  by  dint  of  starving  themselves,  they  were  enabled  to  give  part 
of  their  food  to  some  of  the  Koords,  one  of  whom  allowed  the 
Armenians  to  take  his  place  in  turn  during  the  day.  This  was  not 
much,  for  the  Koords  themselves  had  only  sitting  space,  about  2% 
feet  long;  still  it  did  afford  relief.  But  the  Koord  was  severely 
punished  for  this  benevolence  or  enterprise.  His  rations  of  bread 
were  cut  off,  and  he  was  put  in  irons  for  several  days.  The  men  he 
thus  befriended,  who  now  aver  they  owe  their  lives  to  him,  were 
notables  of  their  village,  and  innocent  persons  to  boot,  who  were  re- 
leased some  weeks  later  because  "  they  had  done  no  wrong." 

It  is  no  easy  thing  for  an  Armenian  man  to  cross  the  frontier  and 
enter  Russia,  if  he  possess  a  gold  or  silver  coin  or  an  article  of  cloth- 
ing; nor  for  a  woman  to  leave  the  country  without  first  undergoing 
indignities,  the  mere  mention  of  which  should  make  a  man's  blood 
boil  with  shame  and  indignation.  "Oh,  but  these  things  are  not  felt 
so  acutely  by  Armenians  as  they  would  be  by  Europeans,"  said  an 
English  lady  to  me  a  few  days  ago:  "  the  wind  is  tempered  to  the 
shorn  lamb,  don't  you  know."  It  may  be  so;  but  I  have  seen  and 
conversed  with  hundreds  and  hundreds  of  Armenian  women  lately, 
and  I  found  no  signs  of  the  tempering  process.  Whatever  vices  or 
virtues  may  be  predicated  of  Armenian  women,  chastity  must  be 
numbered  among  their  essential  characteristics.  They  carry  it  to  an 
incredible  extreme.  In  many  places  an  Armenian  woman  never  even 
speaks  to  any  man  but  her  husband,  unless  the  latter  is  present.  Even 
to  her  nearest  and  dearest  male  relatives  and  connections  she  has 
nothing  to  say;  and  her  purity,  in  the  slums  of  Erzeroum  as  in  the 
valleys  of  Sassoun,  is  above  suspicion.  Yet  these  are  the  people  who 
are  being  continually  outraged  by  brutal  Koords  and  beastly  Turks, 
oftentimes  until  death  releases  them.  But  the  difficulty  of  emigrating 
from  Turkey,  with  money,  clothing,  or  women,  will  be  best  understood 
in  the  light  of  a  few  concrete  examples.  Not  that  the  Turks  object 
to  their  leaving.  On  the  contrary — and  this  is  the  most  conclusive 
proof  of  the  existence  of  the  Plan  of  Extermination — they  actually 


44 

drive  them  over  the  frontier  and  then  persistently  refuse  to  allow  them 
to  return. 

Sahag  Garoyan,  questioned  as  to  the  reasons  why  he  and  his 
family  of  ten  persons  emigrated  from  his  village  of  Kheter  (Sandjak 
of  Bayazid),  deposed  as  follows: 

"  We  could  not  remain  because  we  were  treated  as  beasts  of  bur- 
den by  Rezekam  Bey,  son  of  Djaffer  Agha,  and  his  men,  who  belong 
to  his  Majesty's  Hamidieh  corps,  and  can  therefore  neither  be  pun- 
ished nor  complained  of.  I  emigrated  towards  the  end  of  last  year. 
Rezekam  had  come  with  his  followers,  as  if  it  were  war  time,  and 
taken  possession  of  the  houses  of  the  Armenians,  driving  the  occu- 
pants away.  Only  seven  families  were  allowed  to  stay  on.  The 
others,  having  no  place  to  go  to,  took  refuge  in  the  church.  We  had 
to  feed  the  Koords  for  three  months,  giving  them  our  corn,  sheep, 
&c.,  and  keeping  their  cattle  in  fodder.  We  had  to  serve  some  of 
them  as  beasts  of  burden.*  Rezekam  himself  paid  a  weekly  visit 
to  the  village  of  Karakilisse,  and  levied  a  contribution  of  ^10  Turk- 
ish on  the  inhabitants,  besides  hay,  barley,  &c.,for  his  men.  At  last, 
unable  to  bear  this  burden  any  longer,  we  addressed  a  complaint  to 
the  authorities.  They  told  us  to  be  gone.  Then  a  Koord,  named 
Ghazas  Teamer,  ordered  us  to  sign  a  document  setting  forth  that  we 
were  prosperous  and  happy.  This  was  to  be  sent  to  Constantinople, 
as  he  wished  to  be  appointed  Yoozbashi  of  the  Hamidiehs.  No  one 
signed  the  paper,  whereat  Teamer  grew  angry,  and  killed  Avaki  and 
his  brother.  Five  months  later  he  killed  Minass,  son  of  Kre,  of  the 
village  of  Mankassar.  When  the  winter  came  on  last  year,  Rezekam 
Bey  imprisoned  our  neighbor  Sarkiss,  son  of  Sahag,  had  his  head 
plunged  in  cold  water  and  dried;  after  that  it  was  steeped  in  petroleum 
and  his  hair  burned  off.  Then  he  endeavored  to  violate  Sara,  Sarkiss' 
sister,  but  she  was  smuggled  away  in  time.  Rezekam's  servant, 
Kheto,  dishonored  Moorad's  wife;  and  a  few  days  later  entered  the 
house  of  Abraham,  an  inhabitant  of  the  same  village,  commanding 
him  to  go  and  work  for  Rezekam  Bey.  Abraham's  wife,  who  was 
about  to  become  a  mother,  begged  that  he  might  be  allowed  to  stay 
at  home;  but  Kheto  kicked  her  in  the  stomach,  and  she  was  delivered 
of  a  dead  child  an  hour  or  so  after.  Oh,  we  could  not  live  there — not 
if  we  were  beasts,  instead  of  Christians." 

Mgirdeetch  Mekhoyan,  aged  thirty-five,  of  the  village  of  Koopeg- 
heran  (Sandjok  of  Bayazid),  deposed:  "I  emigrated  in  1894  because 
Aipa  Pasha  came  with  forty  Koordish  families,  demolished  our 
church,  and  took  everything  we  had  "  The  same  story,  with  varia- 
tions, comes  from  every  Sandjak,  almost  from  every  village  of  the 


*This  is  no  uncommon  thing  in  Armenia. 


45 

five  Armenian   provinces.     Bedross  Kozdyan,  aged  fifty-five,  of  the 
village  of  Arog  (Sandjak  of  Van),  testified: 

"  I  left  my  village  and  my  country  with  my  family  in  August,  last 
year  (1894),  because  we  were  driven  away  by  the  Koords  under  Kri, 
son  of  Tshalo,  who  was  abetted  by  the  Turkish  authorities.  He  first 
came  and  violated  three  girls  and  three  young  married  women,  whom 
he  took  away  in  spite  of  their  cries  and  prayers  Three  Armenians 
tried  to  protect  the  wretched  women,  who  implored  them  not  to  let 
them  go.  But  the  Koords  killed  the  three  on  the  spot.  Their  names 
were  Sarkiss,  Khatsho,  and  Keveark.  Next  day  he  and  his  men 
drove  off  the  sheep  of  the  villagers.  We  complained  to  the  Governor 
of  Van,  but  he  said  he  could  not  move  in  the  matter.  Ten  days  later 
the  Koords  came  again,  and  carried  away  our  wheat,  barley,  and  live 
stock,  and  burned  the  hay  which  they  could  not  transport.  Then 
they  knocked  down  the  altar  of  our  church,  hoping  to  find  gold  and 
silver  hidden  away  there.  We  again  besought  the  authorities  to  pro- 
tect us,  but  they  replied,  'We'll  slaughter  you  like  sheep  if  you  dare 
to  come  again  with  your  complaints  against  good  Mohammedans.' 
Then  we  took  what  we  could  with  us  and  set  out  for  Russia.  When 
we  reached  Sinak  six  armed  Koords  attacked  us,  robbed  us  of  every- 
thing we  had,  and  sent  us  over  the  frontier  with  nothing  but  our 
clothes." 

The  Plan  of  Extermination  is  obviously  working  smoothly  and 
well.  The  Christian  population  is  decimated,  villages  are  changing 
hands  almost  as  quickly  as  the  scenes  shift  in  a  comic  opera,  and  the 
exodus  to  Russia  and  the  processions  to  the  churchyard  are  increasing. 
This  is  not  the  place  to  give  a  list  of  islamised  villages,  but  a  typical 
case  may  help  to  convey  an  idea  of  the  process  that  is  going  on  even 
now.  In  the  province  of  Alashkerd,  which  borders  upon  Russia,  there 
are  five  villages  to  the  east  of  Karakilisse,  named  respectively,  Khedr 
(or  Kheter),  Mangassar,  Djoodjan,  Ziro  and  Koopkheran.  These  vil- 
lages Eyoob  Pasha  sent  his  sons  to  occupy.  Koords  of  the  Zilanlee 
tribe,  they  are  all  officers  in  the  Hamidieh  corps.  General  Eyoob  has 
three  sons,  Rezgo  Bey,  Khalid  Bey  and  Yoossoof  Bey,  arid  these  gal- 
lant officers  with  their  followers  set  out  last  spring  and  took  the 
villages  for  themselves.  There  were  about  400  Armensan  houses 
there  at  the  time,  or,  say  roughly,  some  3,000  Christian  inhabitants. 
Thre  is  not  one  there  to-day.  Only  one  individual,  named  Avedis 
Agha,  has  remained,  and  even  he  lives  not  in  one  of  the  four  villages, 
but  in  Yoondjaloo.  He  was  a  wealthy  man  when  the  Koords  arrived; 
he  is  indigent  now.  The  Armenians  were  completely  driven  out  in  the 
course  of  a  few  months  by  methods  which  may  be  termed  somewhat 
drastic.  For  example  :  one  day  the  Koords  met  Markar,  son  of 
Ghoogo,  in  the  fields  carrying  home  his  corn.  They  demanded  his 
araba  (cart).  He  replied  that  it  was  engaged  now,  as  they  could  see 


46 

for  themselves,  but  that  he  would  give  it  later  on.  They  killed  him 
on  the  spot  for  disobedience,  and  threw  his  body  on  the  cart.  Thirty 
villagers  went  with  their  children  to  complain  to  the  Kaimakam  in 
Karakilisse.  The  Kaimakam  caused  them  to  remain  waiting  in  the 
open  air  for  eleven  days  before  he  would  hear  them.  And  having 
heard  them,  he  told  them  to  go — to  Kussia. 

In  the  Vilayet  of  Bitlis  (Kaza  of  Boolanyk  and  Sandjak  of  Moush) 
there  is  a  village  named  Kadjloo,  which,  being  interpreted,  means 
"Village  of  the  Cross."  It  is  a  village  of  the  Crescent  now.  The 
means  by  which  the  sudden  change  was  effected  are  identical  in 
character  with  those  already  described.  Mohammed  Emin  led  a 
number  of  Koords  (outcasts  from  the  Djibranlee  and  Hassnanlee 
tribes)  against  the  village,  took  it,  so  to  say,  by  storm,  and,  to  use  their 
own  picturesque  expression,  "sat  down  in  it."  Happily  it  is  situated 
only  five  miles  distant  from  the  seat  of  the  Turkish  Deputy-Governor, 
but,  unhappily  for  the  people,  he  refused  to  move  a  finger,  and  they 
were  all  driven  off  like  sheep.  Perhaps  this  is  one  of  the  cases  in 
which  the  wind  is  tempered  to  the  shorn  sheep? 

Then  the  conquerors  set  about  raiding  the  neighboring  villages, 
and  in  particular  Piran,  which  is  about  a  mile  further  off.  These 
would  likewise  have  changed  hands  had  it  not  been  for  a  bright  idea 
of  one  of  the  chief  villagers,  at  whose  suggestion  a  Koord  named  Assad 
Agha  was  invited  to  come  and  quarter  his  men  in  Piran,  accepting  for 
himself  twenty  corn-fields,  ten  meadows,  and  a  spacious  two-story  house, 
which  was  built  expressly  for  him  by  an  architect  from  Bitlis,  in  return 
for  which  he  undertook  to  protect  the  Armenians  from  Mohammed 
Emin  and  his  merry  men. 

Three  hundred  and  six  of  the  principal  inhabitants  of  the  District 
of  Khnouss  gave  me  a  signed  petition  when  I  was  leaving  Armenia, 
and  requested  me  to  lay  it  before  "the  humane  and  noble  people  of 
England."  In  this  document  they  truly  say: 

"We  now  solemnly  assure  you  that  the  butchery  of  Sassoun  is 
but  a  drop  in  the  ocean  of  Armenian  blood  shed  gradually  and  silently 
all  over  the  Empire  since  the  late  Turko-Russian  war.  Year  by  year, 
month  by  month,  day  by  day,  innocent  men,  women  and  children  have 
been  shot  down,  stabbed,  or  clubbed  to  death  in  their  houses  and  their 
fields,  tortured  in  strange,  fiendish  ways  in  fetid  prison  cells,  or  left 
to  rot  in  exile  under  the  scorching  sun  of  Arabia.  During  the  prog- 
ress of  that  long  and  horrible  tragedy  no  voice  was  raised  for  mercy, 
no  hand  extended  to  help  us.  That  process  is  still  going  on,  but  it 
has  already  entered  upon  its  final  phases,  and  the  Armenian  people 
are  at  the  last  gasp.  Is  European  sympathy  destined  to  take  the 
form  of  a  cross  upon  our  graves  ?" 

I  have  also  received  two  touching  appeals  from  the  women  of 
Armenia,  sealed  with  their  seals,  and  addressed  to  their  sisters  of 


47 

England.  What  they  ask  is  indeed  little — that  they  be  protected  from 
dishonor.  And,  until  the  General  Elections  gave  us  a  strong  Govern- 
ment, which  knows  its  own  mind,  it  seemed  as  if  these  women  were 
asking  for  the  moon. 

On  November  yth  last  a  Turk  of  the  city  of  Bayazid  asked  Avedis 
Krmoyan  to  pay  a  little  debt.  The  Armenian,  not  having  the  money 
at  the  time,  besought  his  creditor  to  wait  a  few  weeks.  The  Turk 
refused,  and  insisted  on  taking  Krmoyan's  wife  as  a  pledge  that  the 
money  would  be  paid.  Entreaties  and  tears  were  unavailing;  the 
woman  was  carried  off,  and  then  forced  to  become  a  Moslem.  She 
can  never  return  to  her  husband  again. 

In  the  village  of  Khosso  Veran  (Bassen)  a  girl  named  Selvy  was 
seized  by  a  Turk  as  security  for  a  debt  contracted  by  her  father.  The 
creditor  kept  her  three  months  and  dishonored  her;  nor  would  he 
consent  to  set  her  free  until  Giragoss  Ohannissean  went  bail  for  her. 
As  the  debt,  however,  is  unpaid,  the  Turk  has  a  mortgage  on  her  still. 
This  sort  of  thing  cannot  be  said  to  be  uncommon,  for  although  I 
knew  but  three  cases  of  it  from  personal  knowledge,  I  heard  of  more 
than  a  score  in  different  parts  of  Armenia. 

It  is  not  only  absolutely  useless,  but  often  positively  dangerous, 
to  complain  to  the  officials,  who,  from  high  to  low,  take  an  active  part 
in  this  Oriental  "sport"  themselves.  The  Kiateeb  of  Alai  entered  the 
house  of  Ohannes  Goolykian  (village  of  Karatshoban  in  Khnouss)  in 
the  broad  daylight,  and  raped  the  daughter  of  Ohannes,  who  was 
fifteen  years  old,  and  then  sent  her  off  to  Trebizond.  Her  father 
complained,  besought  the  authorities  to  restore  her,  and  it  is  only  fair 
to  say  that,  so  far  as  I  know,  he  was  not  punished  for  his  temerity. 

The  Deputy-Governor  of  Arabghir  actually  arrested  and  expelled 
a  number  of  the  men  of  the  town  whose  wives  were  considered  to  be 
among  the  most  handsome  women  in  Armenia.  He  next  approached 
the  latter,  but  was  received  with  the  scorn  he  deserved.  Then  these 
women  shut  themselves  up  in  their  houses,  refusing  to  allow  him  or 
his  men  to  enter,  whereupon  he  told  them,  publicly  and  shamelessly, 
that  if  they  wished  their  husbands  to  return,  they  must  yield  to  his 
desires. 

The  following  case  is  one  in  which  I  took  a  very  lively  interest, 
because  I  am  well  acquainted  with  the  victim  and  her  family.  Her 
name  is  Lucine  Mussegh,  her  native  village  Khnoossaberd.  Born  in 
1878,  Lucine  was  sent  at  an  early  age  to  the  Amercian  Missionary 
School  at  Erzeroum,  where  she  was  taught  the  doctrines  of  evangelical 
Christianity,  her  father,  Aghadjan  Kemalian,  having  always  manifested 
a  strong  sympathy  for  Protestantism.  Armenian  girls  are  in  chronic 
danger  of  being  raped  by  Turks  and  Koords,  and  Armenian  parents 
are  continually  scheming  for  the  purpose  of  shielding  them  from  this 
calamity  which,  as  we  have  seen,  occasionally  results  in  death.  The 
means  usually  employed  are  very  early  marriages  or  attempts  to  pass 


off  the  girls  as  boys.*  I  have  known  children  to  be  taken  from 
school,  married,  allowed  to  live  a  few  months  with  their  husbands  or 
wives,  and  then  sent  back  to  school  again.  This  is  what  happened  to 
Lucine,  who,  taken  from  school  at  the  age  of  fourteen,  was  wedded 
to  a  boy  of  her  own  age,  Milikean  by  name,  and  having  lived  some 
time  with  him  under  his  father's  roof,  was  sent  to  the  Protestant 
school  once  more.  One  night,  during  her  husband's  absence  from 
home,  she  was  seized  by  some  men,  dragged  by  the  hair,  gagged,  and 
taken  to  the  house  of  Hussni  Bey.  This  man  is  the  son  of  the  Deputy- 
Governor  of  the  place.  He  dishonored  the  young  woman,  and  sent  her 
home  next  day,  but  her  husband  refused  to  receive  her  any  more,  and 
she  is  now  friendless  and  alone  in  the  world,  f 

.*  The  massacre  of  Sassoun  sends  a  shudder  to  the  hearts  of  the 
most  callous.  But  that  butchery  was  a  divine  mercy  compared  with 
the  hellish  deeds  that  are  being  done  every  week  and  every  day  of 
the  year.  The  piteous  moans  of  famishing  children  ;  the  groans  of 
old  men  who  have  lived  to  see  what  can  never  be  embodied  in  words; 
the  piercing  cries  of  violated  maidenhood,  nay,  of  tender  childhood  ; 
the  shrieks  of  mothers  made  childless  by  crimes  compared  with 
which  murder  would  be  a  blessing  ;  the  screams,  scarcely  human,  of 
women  writhing  under  the  lash  ;  and  all  the  vain  voices  of  blood  and 
agony  that  die  away  in  that  dreary  desert  without  having  found  a 
responsive  echo  on  earth  or  in  heaven,  combine  to  throw  Sassoun  and 
all  its  horrors  into  the  shade. 

Such  are  the  things  for  which  we  are  morally  responsible  ;  and 
in  spite  of  the  circumstances  that  the  late  Liberal  Governmeut  was 
in  possession  of  these  and  analagous  facts.  Lord  Kimberley  found  it 
impossible  to  have  them  remedied  and  unadvisable  to  have  them 
published.  There  is  fortunately  good  reason  to  believe  that  Lord 
Salisbury,  who  alone  among  English  statesmen  seems  accurately  to 
gauge  all  the  difficulties  of  this  thorny  question,  will  find  efficacious 
means  of  putting  a  sudden  and  a  speedy  end  to  the  Armenian 
Pandemonium. 


*In  the  village  of  Ishkhoe,  for  instance,  the  daughter  of  Tepan  Agha  was  brought 
up  as  a  boy.  She  was  arrested  and  imprisoned  some  time  ago  in  Erzeroum,  for  this, 
too,  is  a  crime. 

fShe  gave  me  an  appeal  to  the  women  of  England  signed  by  herself,  together  with 
her  photograph. 


\H'NIVEI 


University  of  California 

SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  L'BRARY  FACILITY 

405  Hilgard  Avenue,  Los  Angeles,  CA  90024-138* 

Return  this  material  to  the  library 

from  which  it  was  borrowed. 


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